#I actually did get that translation from Actual Portuguese speakers though

[royalarchivist]

NOTE: In light of the recent information that's come out about Forever, I've turned off reblogs on this post.

As an archivist, it feels disingenuous to delete history and pretend it never happened, so clips related to Forever can still be found on the blog and timestamps for past VODs will still be up on the VOD Timestamp Archive for archival purposes. However, I won't be posting anything about him or updating his VODs moving forward.

Original caption under read more.

-

Forever is one of my favorite streamers I've met thanks to QSMP, so I wanted to show my appreciation for him and love for his character as thanks for all the laughs he's given me! Here are some of my favorite clips of him and his friends from 2023.

I wasn't able to include every clip I love since that would make this video too long, plus I only wanted to use clips I had from Forever's POV (with one small exception), but hopefully there are still a few old and new bits that'll make you laugh as much as I did the first time I saw them!

[the12thnightproject]

Hi. I love your stories. From what I've read in current Mitsuhide's story, I was wandering if you are a native speaker of Portuguese or at least have a good knwolege of the language.

Hi Anon!

Thank you very much for the love. I very much appreciate it.

The short answer to your question is no - my native language is not Portuguese. I know almost no Portuguese. My native tongue is English.

The longer answer is that I have tried to learn the following languages: Hebrew, French, Spanish, Danish, and Norwegian. The operative word is tried. The technical term is failed. At best, I can somewhat read French, and at one point, I could manage to figure out newspaper articles in Danish with some context and a good dictionary.

Part of this might just be that I am a language dunce, and not capable of learning another language. Part of it might be more that in the United States, in public schools, students do not have the opportunity to take language classes until age 14 (an even then it is an elective and not required), and that's probably too late for most of us.

I wish I were better at language acquisition and greatly admire anyone who is fluent and able to communicate (speaking and writing) in multiple tongues.

As for the fic itself - though my main character Katsu has learned Portuguese, because the story is written in first person, I don't actually have of the dialogue written in Portuguese. Instead, I just note that such and such character (usually Francisco, but there will be a couple of others in later chapters), spoke in Portuguese, but because Katsu understands that language, she's already translated it in her mind, so whatever words the original speaker used, was already translated in Katsu's head.

Examples below the cut of how I work around it:

“Lord Mitsuhide – stop. That’s my partner. Francisco.” I pushed past him and called down to the lower level. “Francisco, up here. Don’t worry. I’m safe.” Then, because Francisco’s apt to forget his Japanese even in the calmest situation, I repeated myself in Portuguese.

Moments later, a puffing Francisco breached the top of the stairs and rushed into the room. His face was red and there were sweat stains visible on the shirt he wore under his jerkin. “Katsu. You are here. When I learned someone bought you, I thought, Akihira will murder me.” He paused and drew in a long panting breath. And then another. “I got lost and went to the wrong ship.”

Of course he did.

Note to self. Next time find a partner who can find their way from one end of the city to the other.

He was still speaking in Portuguese, so clearly his language skills (such as they were) had deserted him completely. I hurried to reassure him. “An acquaintance of Aki’s recognized me and purchased me. If you can repay him… and maybe give him a bit extra for his trouble, then we can be on our way.”

.....

In the next chapter, we get Mitsuhide's POV of the same conversation:

Shouts from below disrupted that thought. He couldn’t make out the words – it sounded like the Nanban tongue. Had her would-be purchaser found them so quickly and returned with more reinforcements? If so, it was a poorly thought-out ambush that would alert the victim to a pending attack.

He grabbed his sword and turned just as Akihira’s daughter yelled, “Lord Mitsuhide – stop. That’s my partner. Francisco.”

She rushed past him and called down to the lower level. “Francisco, up here. Don’t worry. I’m safe.” She then added something in Portuguese. Presumably to calm the man down but given that Mitsuhide did not speak the language he could not be certain of it. She could have given this ‘Francisco’ the opposite instructions in Portuguese and Mitsuhide would never know.

She understands Portuguese.

A useful skill.

Too useful to ignore.

He kept his hand on his sword, just in case as a short, stocky Westerner rushed into the room, his words tumbling over one another. Mitsuhide caught the words “Katsu” and “Akihira,” and none of the rest.

The daughter followed the gush of words without any problem and replied to the man in the same language. Not just familiar with the language. Fluent. Which turned her from an annoying impediment to a potential tool. Unfortunately, an aggravating tool.

-------------------

Granted, the fic would be much more realistic if I put the dialogue into the language it is being spoken in... but to do that I'd have to rely on google translate, and there's too much possibility of error that way.

This is more or less how it's handed when writing film and television scripts too. If the intention is that a character is speaking in another language, in the script that's signaled as "(speaking in Spanish)" but you write the dialogue in English. With spec scripts there is no guarantee that the whoever is reading your script (be it a producer or a contest judge) speaks that other language, so writing it in that language would cause them to miss potentially important information.

The intention is that if the script is ever filmed, they would either hire an actor fluent in that language and/or hire a translator, so those lines likely would be filmed in Spanish (or whatever language), and then subtitled.

Again, thank you for asking!

[magicalmanhattanproject]

Okay sorry to like just infodump on your post but I have so many thoughts about languages and language learning and QSMP language learning specifically so here goes.

So the thing is that if you grow up monolingual, talking in a language that isn't your native one is like.. the most unreasonably and irrationally terrifying thing possible. Like I'm comfortable in my Spanish abilities. I can follow along with most of the Spanish streamers on the QSMP. I am confident enough in my abilities to do translation into Spanish for fic authors. I am not confident enough to like. Have a conversation with a native speaker. This is not something exclusive to me. It's just a Thing.

Most of the non-native English speakers are comfortable in English enough that they use it as a common language even between each other instead of relying on the translation mod because the mod is buggy and hard to troubleshoot mid conversation. That means that in most cases, most of the non-native English speakers are gonna be defaulting to English when they want to talk to the English speakers anyway with maybe some falling back on the translator mod for specific phrases or if they're struggling a bit. Maxo in particular uses the translator a lot more than the others from what I've noticed and Forever seems to just like. Need to get some fluent words out of his system when he gets frustrated with his English.

So between adding the translator mod (which people could lean on as a crutch even though it would be inevitably buggy and imperfect) and adding more languages (it's harder to learn three languages than one and the Portuguese and French speakers are using English for cross-language communication anyway) I expected a lot of the English speakers' language to stall out entirely.

The fact that Foolish has kept progressing at a frankly ridiculous pace is a testament to his own drive and desire to learn. It's easy to write him off as just a himbo. And to be clear, he is a himbo. But he's also really smart and really willing to learn. And I think there's two main reasons for this.

One, he's willing to be uncomfortable and look stupid. Like, his name is literally Foolish. You don't name yourself Foolish if you need everyone to know that you're always the most knowledgeable guy in the room. If I recall correctly, he actually specifically asked Leo to only speak to him in Spanish so he could practice. Sometimes, she does need some English to help him understand, but he's willing to back himself into a really uncomfortable and difficult corner to force himself to learn. And he is learning so much! So quickly! And it's so impressive!

The other reason is Vegetta. So I mentioned how most of the non-native English speakers are comfortable enough with English? Vegetta is the exception. His English vocabulary and expression are much more limited than anyone else's (though still much less limited than like, Bad's in Spanish, for example) and he asks the other Spanish speakers to translate pretty often. He just doesn't seem to have a head for language learning. Before the translation mod, he and Foolish had to communicate through the medium of "hopefully our chats can translate". He and Foolish are also egg husbands and have a lot in common and a lot they want to be able to talk about.

I haven't actually seen Foolish and Vegetta interact recently because Vegetta streams too early for me, but I'm sure Foolish will be able to speak to him in Spanish soon and it will be super exciting for everyone involved.

The other thing is that I wouldn't hold the not learning languages against the others too bad. For one thing, they are making progress, just not at the absurd speeds Foolish is. For another, the translation mod probably did slow them down some. Translation is like. The direct opposite of language learning. It's also an essential tool for cross linguistic communication.

So like, if you view the goal of the QSMP as "teach people new languages to the point of fluency" then the translator is a questionable decision.

But if you view the goal as "enable my monolingual friends to hang out with my differently monolingual friends and potentially make new friends" then it's been a massive, unprecedented, runaway success.

The most interesting egg is leo because she speaks majority spanish with foolish, and she's mentioned a few times that she doesn't understand english super well. Overall its been good for foolish because he's getting pretty good at reading and its been fun to watch him improve. I just wish the other english eggs did that too i want to see bad learn spanish or something ☹️

Yeah, I agree! I love how much Foolish has been learning with Leonarda, he's getting to the point where he's picking up snippets of Portuguese from Richarlyson's signs because written, the languages aren't dissimilar. As a point for multiculturalism and diversity, this is a major win and it's exactly what the QSMP was meant to do! I'm very proud and happy because of that. :)

As for the others, it would be very neat if Bad or Philza worked harder to learn languages outside of English too, but I'm not sure either would go for it. I will say that they do have semi-reasonable excuses though.

Philza isn't on long enough or with enough regularity to learn much, and Badboyhalo is often so entrenched in lore and quick, snappy communication that the time it takes to translate a Spanish sign could seriously affect how things go. Bad's self-assigned purpose seems to be keeping the lore going- he drops in to keep others up to date, furthers the plot, and farms resources so all players are on a level playing field and no one is excluded because they get killed by mobs every few minutes or can't sprint to keep up with a group bc they have no food. That doesn't leave much room for sitting there for a while translating and learning.

I will ALSO say, however, that given how long he streams for and how late, a Spanish learning section would be lovely late night content. Cross your fingers and hope, lol.

[readersperspective]

Writing Advice Bilingual Characters

As some of you (who read my reviews) already might have noticed, I am bilingual myself. Sadly, multilingual people do not get represented well a lot in media, so yeah... some advice for writing them. It will certainly not capture every aspect of being bilingual, but it might give you a first idea.

There are different ways to be multilingual.

People who grew up with more than one native language will almost certainly speak all of them fluently. Most of them have two (their parents’ language and their country’s language, or the language of one parent and of the other) but I also know a family where the children grew up with four native languages (the mother speaks Portuguese, the father Italian, they talk to each other in English, and live in Germany, where the children grew up)

Some people speak two or more languages, but cannot write all of them - especially when the alphabets are not the same, for example English and Russian or Arabic. This affects mostly children of immigrants.

Some people can read and write a language quite well, but are not good at speaking or listening comprehension. Those people often learned the language at school with a bad teacher or by themselves with books and apps.

Some people, again mostly children and grandchildren of immigrants, can read and understand a language, but don’t speak it. Mostly, the parents decided to not teach the child the language, and they learned it themselves by listening to their parents talk to relatives.

Confidence can play a big role in this. I understand the dialect of my grandparents without a problem, but I would never try to speak it. I can’t even imagine forming those words with my mouth, and it would sound terrible.

People who learnt a language at school can reach completely different levels of that language. I started learning English at age 6 and am completely fluent by now. Other people in my class barely understand more than easy conversations in English.

Most people will do their very best to hide their accents.

If the person is not a native speaker, but fluent in a language, their accent will be a mix of whatever they can find at the moment. Media is a big influence in that.

Since I watch more British than American TV, my accent sounds a bit british, too. When I watched “Call the Midwife”, I often even unconciously copy the accent of Laura Main. I don’t know why her, but my brain just liked it, I guess.

Also, we will use words, phrases and sentence structures from so many different sources.

People who learnt English through the internet (aka most of the younger generation) will have problems to not use swear words when actually being in Great Britain or America. They just do not have the weight for us, since on the internet they get used all the time.

I have never in my whole live heard a multilingual person switch languages mid-sentence on accident.

We will do it on purpose, though, if the other part of the conversation understands both languages.

Also, we will maybe say the word in another language if we forget the meaning.

Multilingual people that are not natives in the language they usually use in their day-to-day life (immigrants, for example) will often count and calculate in their native language. For example at a restaurant where they calculate the price in their head, they will probably do it in their native language.

Conversations with multiple multilingual people can be very different.

If one person only understands one language, they will probably try to include that person by speaking the language they share. I can say from experience, though, that if eight native Germans that have varying levels of English language skills will sit together with one introverted Turkish person with medium English language skills, they will go back to German quite often. It’s not nice, but sadly natural.

In general, people will try to speak in their native language if possible. You can take two people that share a native language and also both speak English and let them walk around in London - they will probably speak their native language, no matter how well they speak English.

Multilingual people that share multiple languages will switch on purpose when they feel like they can express their thoughts better in the other language.

Many languages have taken words from English.

Especially young people take a lot of English filler words and phrases (or insults) and put them into their native language. “Help, mein Deutschlehrer überfordert uns mit Hausaufgaben, like, what the fuck, glaubt der wir haben nichts besseres zu tun?” Is a sentence you would absolutely hear from a German student.

Many young people that don’t live in Great Britain or America will not use these words and phrases around their parents. First of all, our parents often do not speak English as well as we do, but more importantly, our parents do not like us using English instead of ur native language.

Many professions nowadays have an English name, I don’t know why. What used to be a Hausmeister is now a Facility Manager. The longer the English phrase for your profession, the more likely you will not be taken serious by older people.

Once you have more than one native language, you learn new languages more easily, for some reason. I know a girl that speaks 7 languages, at age 20, 5 of them fluently.

"You speak English quite well” or phrases like that said by a native speaker can be the best compliment ever, or more uncomfortable than nice.

When you are translating for your family and hear that sentence, it is super nice.

When you are only speaking English, that sentence indicates that your accent is still heavy. You do not pass as a native speaker.

When you are a native speaker, that sentence is just weird.

You can indentify the people that learnt a language through reading by giving them words that are pronounced untypically.

For years I thought “precious” (a word that is heavily used on the internet, especially in fan communities, but not that much in school) was pronounces pree-ci-ous. I was shocked when I heard it for the first time.

There are situations where even quite fluent non-native speakers will not be able to understand or talk in their second language.

The first few minutes after standing up (although that can change when the person is really fluent)

When they are in great pain

When they are in great fear

When they are under great stress

Sometimes even when they did not use that language in the last few days

Translating in realtime is terribly hard and will fuck your head. When I was on holiday with my parents, I often had to read the information signs in museums or at sights for them and translate. It’s easier when you first read the text and then summarise it in another language, but trying to translate it sentence by sentence is painful and you will question your abilities in both languages.

This gets just more horrible when under pressure. While we were in England, a visibly stressed young woman came to us and asked us if we had 5 pounds, she had lost some money she needed to take the train back home. I repeated her sentence to my father. In English.

Also sorry to the poor worker at McDonalds who I talked English to while speaking German to my English exchange student.

People abroad will absolutely become friends with every person that they hear speaking their language. While being in London, we overheard a man talking to his son in German about taking a photo, and I immediately asked (in German) if I should take a photo of both of them together. We talked for fifteen minutes after that, even though we had never met before.

On that note, in tourist citys the people that try to sell things to tourists usually speak a lot of languages enough to say things like “Oh, I speak a bit of [language], too, but not well. Didn’t pay enough attention in school. You look like nice people.” Makes it so easy to sell things.

Idioms are literally hell. Best example has been in the news currently, with Greta Thunberg literally translating a Swedish idiom in a tweet not realising that “putting someone against a wall” means something totally different in English. 

Idioms will be hell for you as a writer, too, though, as long as you do not fluently speak both of the languages or at least one of them is fictional, because it’s quite easy to mess up if you use idioms that jus aren’t normally used by people speaking that language.

Bilingual puns are amazing, but sadly rare.

Those are the things I thought of first... Maybe you can find some ideas or inspiration there for your characters, too. The best thing of course is to let someone proof-read your character if you are uncertain, but this hopefully already helped you a bit!

[missskzbiased]

OH i think for the first question it's like for example I'm indonesian, and for some reason a lot of foreigners think we're indians even if we're totally different. Or because Indonesia and malaysia are so similar, people sometimes mistake us for being malay and vice versa. Something like that. Hope it makes sense now 🤣 im bad at explaining yikes

LOL what is the meaning of "Puta que Pariu" though if I may ask? Sounds interesting 😂

And omg thats nice that your cinema is exploring a lot of things. Here it kinda sucks altho some directors are really good and stuff but actual good movies don't really sell among the general population cause theyd rather eat up cheap soap operas 😔

I relate abt the history too skjsksjs

Its so cool that the healthcare system is good like i wanna relate abt how the gov is corrupt and im ashamed of it but its also worse cos healthcare system here is not so good 😭 its getting better though

Aahsska i wish i could see more of accurate representation of other cultures in hollywood. Stereotypes was fun but its old now x_x (and potentially harmful? Yea)

Srry for the long ask skdjksns

OH! Got it! I think we’re mistaken for any Spanish speaker. I’m Brazilian, so we speak Portuguese. And Portuguese and Spanish sound similar. It’s quite normal for people think that something in Portuguese is Spanish. Chan, for example, thought “Ai se eu te pego” was Spanish. He even apologized about it kkkkk (Which is quite funny because we don’t really care kkkkk We kinda judge but we’re like “LOL”)

The most similar to “Puta que Pariu” would be “Holy Shit” but it’s not really it. If we say it word by word it would be “Bitch who gave birth” kkkk The actual swear is “Puta” which is “Bitch/Whore” and we have a lot of variations to it (Holy shit would be more like “Puta Merda” but anyway)

EDIT: Motherfucker is quite similar too. It could also be “Filho da Puta” but this one would be better translated to “Son of a bitch”, So I guess motherfucker could give a better dimension. Not sure.

I just don’t really like history in general kkkk

And yep! It would be nice. People think we have beaches and forests and monkeys. And that’s it. Oh, and Favela and crimes. And now that we have a fucking moron as a president.

Our have a lot of problems too but the project itself is really good and it could be perfect if they just did what they had to do instead of stealing the bloody money from the hospitals

And no problem! sauhshuauhsauhasuhuhsa I like long asks. Wish I could do them too Ç.Ç but desktop limits my characters.

[sitonmyhot-seatoflove]

A Sós - Brian May x Brazilian!Reader

(aka my insanely belated A Night at the Fandom gift for the lovely Ana @bismillahnah. there's an author's note for you at the end, darling! thank you so much @dtfrogertaylor for pulling this together for all of us! you rock! this was amazing! once again, I'm so sorry for being this terribly late)

word count: 3988 words

warnings: some making out, some implied sexual content, lots of cheesiness, a little bit of untranslated Portuguese (it’s set in Brazil!), and some playing fast and loose with the timeline.

Só nós dois e uma madrugada inteira pra conversar / Só nós dois e uma infinidade de Amor pra cantar / Com você o manual da vida fica fácil de ler / Com você a hipótese de uma vida pra ser / Vivida juntos / Nesse e naquele que é só nosso mundo / Um mundo de nós / Eu, você e a existência a sós.

---------------------------------------------

You were never really one to talk to strangers.

Not this incessantly, at the very least, and certainly not this intimately.

Something about this one made him a little extra special, though.

Maybe it was just that you'd had a couple of drinks, and had gotten free entry to what was supposed to be the best Carnival party of the year - only to be ditched by your best friend when she found someone to make out with in some random corner. You were all alone in the Baile Vermelho e Preto, and hell, it was Carnival - you weren't supposed to be alone.

Maybe it was something about him - maybe the way his curls framed his face and bounced around him as he walked, a little messy and a little frizzy, giving him a frazzled sort of look you couldn't help but find endearing. (It was all the humidity, he'd explained, from being so near the ocean - his hair was usually much tidier.)

Maybe it was how cute he looked when his pointier teeth showed whenever you said something clever. It was nearly addictive, that smile, and from the moment you saw it for the first time, your sole purpose for the rest of the evening was to make sure you could produce it as many times as possible.

Maybe it was the way he'd never lost his temper while trying to communicate with that bartender - even after seven whole minutes of failed attempts to order a different drink, even as there was a line forming behind him, even as he was sweating through his white button-up so much it was sticking to his skinny back. His voice was soft even as he half shouted out his order over the music in a heavily accented Spanish/Portuguese/English blend of a language - and even though everyone behind him seemed annoyed, they all seemed too reluctant to do anything about it. You'd noticed some of them looked almost intimidated - maybe by his height? Maybe by the fact you didn't usually get that many tourists in this part of town? You weren't sure. But, while they all stared and whispered, no one seemed about to step in, and you were a translator, damn it, even if you only did it as a side gig.

He was nine minutes into his attempts to communicate with the bartender when you'd decided to intervene.

---------------------------------------------

"Ele tá pedindo uma cerveja escura. Tipo Guinness. Se não tiver, ele quer só uma água tônica mesmo." The bartender looked exasperated at your attempt to help. You couldn't blame him - that crowd wasn't exactly the nicest to be around, and the last few minutes probably hadn't helped improve his mood.

"Eu entendi, moça. Tô tentando explicar pra ele que a gente só tem Brahma e água mesmo. É open bar, olha essa fila, pelo amor de Deus..."

"Desculpa, moço. Vê duas Brahmas mesmo." You turned to the tall stranger, who looked dumbfounded by your meddling. "Sorry, buddy, you'll have to make do with light beer and regular water. It's not too bad, though, I promise." You pulled him away by his upper arm - surprisingly toned for such a skinny lad - while holding the two beers in your other hand. He was wide eyed, and you assumed he'd been a bit stunned by your unabashedness.

"I'm-" He paused as he saw the line that had formed behind him. "Jesus. Sorry. Didn't mean to be a prick."

"I know. Figured I'd rescue you both." You offered him his beer and a soft smile, and he looked down at it, looking less than excited to give it a try. "C'mon, now. It won't kill you."

"No, no, I know, I just - not my favorite drink, really, but it'll do," he said, tilting his bottle to clink with your own before taking a tentative sip. "Thank you."

The smile he gave you right then completely changed your entire evening. The only word that your fogged brain could come up with to describe it was magical - you cursed yourself for the cheesiness of it. It really was how it felt, though - from the moment you saw the way his eyes crinkled just a tiny bit, and glowed just a little more than everyone else's, you were done for. And after he took a moment to look at you up and down, apparently taking notice of you for the first time that evening, and his eyes seemed to brighten up at the sight - that was it, this was the best Carnival ever. Never mind your friend, never mind the fact that you'd have to wake up at an ungodly hour. Who could possibly give a shit that your feet were hurting from the pretty shoes you'd chosen when this man was looking at you like that?

His raised eyebrows seemed questioning all of a sudden, and you realized his lips were moving. They had been moving. Cacete, Y/N, acorda, ele tá falando com você, responde- 

"Sorry, what?" You ask in response, finally waking from whatever weird type of trance this stranger's very handsome face and unearthly pretty eyes had put you under. "Hard to hear over all the music."

"I said, do you wanna step outside for a smoke?"

---------------------------------------------

“I swear to God I can speak Spanish.”

The smoking section kinda stunk, you couldn't lie. It was pretty rough - while the front of the building had been spruced up recently, probably for the party, the side, where most smokers had gathered, was all just rough cement with exposed orange brick in some spots. He - Brian, you'd learned, Brian from the UK, an Astrophysicist who was in town for work - leant on that wall while trying to justify his faux pas from earlier. You tried to stay serious, but a little scoff of a laugh escaped your lips at his proclamation. “I’m dead serious! I even spoke Spanish very well to some native speakers last week," he bragged, taking a long drag of his cigarette before speaking. “For work.”

His work was interesting. You were a little confused as to why an Astrophysicist had come to spend so much time in South America - he'd told you he'd been in Venezuela just last week, and Argentina was coming up next - but, really, you weren't complaining, not when it had landed him here, right in front of you.

“What do you do, then?”

“I’m still finishing my degree too," you said. He'd talked a little bit about his unfinished PhD - something about 'various pressures', but he'd been weirdly coy about those. Busy with work, he'd said. “Still on my bachelor’s, though. Wanna be a psychologist.”

“Been analyzing me this whole time, then?”

“Obviously.”

That one got you a smile. Score.

You both were comfortable with each other - weirdly comfortable, as far as your experience with handsome strangers went. Because he wasn't just asking you questions for the sake of asking - when he inquired further about your interest in psychology, he asked about the specifics and couldn't stop asking follow up questions. What you wanted to do with your degree, what type of approach you preferred, whether you actually bought all the stuff Freud had come up with, what was your take on the more recent developments in Cognitive therapy stuff… He also seemed to be knowledgeable in nearly every subject. An hour had passed, you'd noticed, and all you'd done was talk - about your interests, nonetheless. He shifted the subject slightly, only once, interrupting you mid-sentence while you mused at him about the more philosophical aspects of Freudian theories.

“I would like to see you tomorrow.” You were a bit taken aback at the interruption - and his interest - and he noticed. "Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt, I just - you're brilliant. And beautiful. And I would like to see you again."

"That's not how Carnival works, Brian." He frowned at that, and you realized that maybe he'd forgotten what this was - where you were, what you were supposed to be doing. You weren't supposed to be discussing philosophy and he wasn't supposed to be taking an interest in your intellect; you were supposed to be making out in some corner, just like your friend had been, both of your names having slipped from one another's mind by the time morning came. "It's usually a one night thing… And I'm busy tomorrow." You were completely busy for the next few weeks, as a matter of fact; a fantastic job opportunity had turned up, but you couldn't help but want, just for a second, to say 'screw it' and give Brian all the time in the world. You could, at the very least, give him the rest of your night, though, so you tried to find a way to stretch your time together a little longer.

"You seen the beach yet?"

---------------------------------------------

Copacabana was just as beautiful at night, he'd decided. Turns out he had seen the beach, but only in passing - his hotel was a few of blocks from where you two were now, walking aimlessly, slowly, shoes in your hands so you could feel the sand. Just trying to pass the time with one another.

The sky was clear enough for you two to stargaze, too, which gave you a nice little way into his mind, for a change. He marveled at the constellations he'd never get to see back home, and cursed himself for not bringing a telescope along for the trip. You teased him for that - how does an Astrophysicist travel halfway across the globe and doesn't bring a single telescope? But he only shrugged at that, blushing a little and turning your attention to the Southern Crux, bright and beautiful and right above you both.

"Do you think we're ever gonna have a real answer?" He didn't seem to get your question, so you expanded. "I mean, do you think your lot - the hard scientists, I mean - do you think you guys will ever be able to tell us why we're here after all? What it all means?"

"Science's really good at the 'what's and the 'how's, but it doesn't have much to say about the 'whys'," he replied, thoughtful as ever, sounding a little more confident now that you'd switched lanes and were talking about his specialty, rather than yours. The way his voice had shifted was more attractive to you than anything else about him so far. "Neither should it, I reckon." He shrugged. "And I don't think we can ever come up with those types of answers. We know so little, as much as we like to pretend otherwise. I mean, think about it, we only know the size of the observable universe," he said as his eyes shifted upwards, "we can hypothesize all we want about what's on the outside of that, but, truth is, we have no bloody clue." 

"Great, that's not nerve wracking at all."

"It's kinda nice, if you think about it. We're tiny specks in a tiny world, which is a tiny speck in our Solar System, which is a tiny speck in our galaxy, which is a tiny speck in the part of the universe we know." He shrugged once again. "Puts things in perspective, you know? I mean, how special are we, really? But, then again, maybe we are. Maybe the Christians are right. I don't know."

"You think there's life out there?"

"Well, you ever heard of the Drake equation?"

God, you could hear him talk for hours. Even if it was about numbers. You did hear him talk for hours - and he heard you, too. About psychology again, sure - why you'd chosen it, and why you'd become passionate, and all the professors you hated and all the ones you loved. But things got a little more personal, too. You talked about how you'd moved up to Rio from the South because they had the best Psych school in the country, and while you really missed your family, you'd fallen in love with what you believed was the most beautiful city on Earth. How you liked the beach, but Copacabana was overrated - "it's touristy and there's prettier places" - and, really, you preferred the short stretches of woods you could find in the local parks. He kept up with everything you said, and your conversation moved so quickly you couldn't really tell how you'd skipped from one subject to another. He could discuss the complexities of Nabokov and the psychological analysis you'd done of his characters, laugh at a stupid pun you'd made about the ocean, and show real interest in your passion of history all in a matter of minutes.

"And there's this really swanky café," you said, while doing your best to give him a mental tour of Rio's historic downtown, "it's called Cafeteria Colombo. Bit touristy, but I'm into it. They're really traditional - the Emperor of Brazil supposedly used to eat there, which is kinda ludicrous but super fun at the same time."

"Take me there." You looked confused - it was the middle of the night, and you opened your mouth to explain that it wasn't exactly a 24-hour joint, but he beat you to it. "Tomorrow - let's go there tomorrow. My treat."

"I... don't think so, Brian."

"It's the least I can do after you saved me at the bar." You chuckled a little at that. "And introduced me to the best damn light beer I've ever had." You actually let out a full-bellied laugh, and he seemed satisfied to see it. "Let me see you again, Y/N. Buy you a cuppa."

And you wanted to, but that's not what this was. You had to keep it in mind, and he had to get it into his - it was not what this was. He beat you to your argument before you could even protest, though.

"I don't care how Carnival works." He stopped walking. "You can't possibly believe this is a one night thing, Y/N."

"You should really be more respectful of the holiday traditions, Brian."

He didn't have an answer for that, which made you a little disappointed. Still, you'd meant what you'd said - he was leaving in a couple of weeks, and you knew that if you got to see him again - if you got to hang out with him for any longer than a single night - you'd serve him your heart in a silver platter to take across the ocean without hesitating. Hell, you'd been with him for a few hours and already felt tempted enough to do it.

You kept walking in silence, the air feeling a little heavier from the higher rise and from the way you'd shut him down again. Before you could come up with something else to say - anything, puta merda, Y/N, inventa qualquer coisa pra falar - he moved his hand and placed it over yours, and you swore your heart started wanting to jump out of your body and physically reach over to him.

"Can you ever feel your heart in your ears?" You blurted out and immediately cursed yourself; he laughed a little, though, and had a surprised expression on his face when you dared to look over. "Sorry, that was stupid."

"It wasn't." You stared at him in mock seriousness, pointedly. "I swear." He was smiling at you, and at this point, you couldn't help but smile back. His eyes lingered on your lips for a half second too long. "Why'd you ask?" You stopped walking again, a little too stunned at his bluntness to keep going. Wasn't it obvious why you'd asked? "Can you feel yours now?" He asked, his voice softer than ever.

"Yeah."

He placed both hands - God, he had really large hands - on either side of your head, fingertips playing a little with your earlobes. "Well, your ears are hot."

"Well, you're not exactly helping with that right now, are you?" You wrapped your hands around his wrists, hoping to feel a quickened pulse, hoping to God his heartbeat was as strong and erratic as yours was right now. Did his heart want to come find you, too?

"How do I ask 'May I kiss you?' in Portuguese?"

"Eu posso te beijar?"

He tries to repeat it, and something comes out - it sounds more like Spanish than Portuguese, but you forgive him the second you look into his eyes. You thought you could get lost in them - Jesus Christ, where the hell were these romcom thoughts coming from? You could, though, you swore you could, and that looking straight at them felt like plunging deep into the ocean, and ugh, that particular thought was made so much cheesier by the fact that you were right by the ocean - and wait, puta merda, he was looking at you - at your lips, then back at your eyes, then back at your lips - very expectantly. Right, he had asked you something, you were supposed to say something, even though you were honestly about to go blind from how warm his hands felt on your face. "Close enough," you managed to whisper out, your swirly mind getting swirlier by the second as this beautiful stranger pulled you in.

His kiss felt huge - bigger than the both of you, bigger than tonight, certainly bigger than Carnival. That's the only way you could describe it. His lips were soft on yours, and as you opened your mouth with a gasp, you could taste a tiny bit of Brahma on his tongue. It was mostly mint and ocean salt and cigarettes and him, all around you, his tall body enveloping you and somehow putting your brain in a haze where time seemed to move outside of reality. There was nothing other than you and Brian and, for all you knew, Copacabana was the whole world.

You were trembling by the time you'd stopped kissing, and, as he moved his hands to encircle your waist, he was trembling too. You were giddy to notice it. He seemed giddy just from kissing you.

“Let me see you tomorrow.”

“Can’t live in the moment, can you?” You teased, pulling him back into you and playfully biting at his lip to get your point across.

You quietly inquired, in between warm kisses, where he was staying, again - wasn't it close by? And, wouldn't you know it, his hotel was just a block away from where you were standing right now.

And, well, that had to be kismet, right?

---------------------------------------------

His suite was fancy - too fancy for an Astrophysicist, and you might have realized that, maybe, if you weren't so otherwise distracted by his lips, seemingly all over you at once, setting your skin alight one peck at a time. By the time he started using his tongue on your neck, you were done for - nothing would come out of your mouth that night other than kisses and loving and strangled moans of his name, which happened by the minute. He seemed to love it - every time you said his name, he was a little spurred on, grabbed at you with a little more force, and, in turn, you loved that. Every time he said yours, your stomach did somersaults. You hoped you sounded as sweet to him as he did to you.

He fell asleep before the sun rose, and your heart sank a little at the thought of leaving his embrace and making your way back into reality. You tried to commit everything to memory - the smell of the crook of his neck, the curve of his tiny bottom, the pattern of the freckles on his upper back, the way he sighed in his sleep when you scratched his scalp, the freaking hotel logo on the face towel in the bathroom - absolutely anything you could get your senses to grasp at. You had to make sure you had a full picture to come back to, otherwise you feared you might think it was all an alcohol induced illusion of some sort. Besides, he looked so pretty while he slept, so that's how you chose to remember him - the crease between his eyebrows gone completely, lips slightly parted, drool starting to come out, hair more frazzled than ever.

---------------------------------------------

It was always great working with musicians - you liked talking to artists, you'd always get to see their shows for free and, as part of the 'entourage', you'd always get some damn good amenities - and this was an especially sweet gig. Queen was the biggest client you'd ever gotten - their original translator got sick and, when a producer friend of yours had referred you, you were more than happy to step in for them. The four members would need a translator to work closely with them for the next couple of weeks, and you couldn't have been more excited to run around town with rockstars for a longer stretch of time, especially while on break from school. It was perfect, really - good pay, good gig, and, hopefully, some good company.

You tried to keep this in mind - to conjure up how excited you'd been when you'd gotten the job; how, because of it, you had been able to buy tickets to go home for Holy Week; how excited your family had sounded on the phone. This was worth it, you thought, it was worth not seeing Brian again. He would go back to the UK so soon anyway - it was just a fling, just a sweet memory you had to lock up in a little box and keep in the back of your brain for now. 

And you did. You did such a good job at compartmentalizing you only thought of him once during your morning shower. Once again while making your coffee - you wondered how he took his, or if maybe he was a tea drinker. He was British. But maybe that was just a stereotype? Maybe he loved coffee, maybe he took it with three spoons of sugar just like you did. You wished you'd stayed long enough to find out.

You did a great job of keeping him out of your mind while commuting to the convention center all the way across town where you'd be meeting the band. You were running late on your first day, which was less than ideal, and the anxiety of it kept your thoughts stuck on the traffic and on your watch. They couldn't fire you on the first day, could they? You'd assumed most journalists at the press conference would be ready to ask in English, but you never really knew - Brazilian journalism could be unpredictable. They still needed you. You were fine, you were not going to get fired, and you were certainly not going to be distracted by the memory of the tall, handsome, unattainable man you'd left in bed that morning.

You were so consumed by your thoughts - your non-Brian thoughts - and the desperate need not to be late that you ran inside the venue, not bothering to take a second glance at the journalists setting up in the main area or at the Queen poster someone had put up near the entrance to the meeting room a staff member directed you to.

In retrospect, paying a little more attention might have saved you a lot of grief, or, at the very least, a hell of a scare. It would have been shocking to see Brian looking down at you from the huge poster right outside the room your new client was supposed to be in - but it was a much bigger shock to walk in and find the man himself, staring at you, eyes wider than ever, dropping his half-drunk tea on the carpet.

Well, you thought, guess he's a tea drinker.

---------------------------------------------

A/N: oi, Ana! espero que você goste do seu presente. não sei se você já sacou, mas eu sou brasileira kkkk e, como boa brasileira, tô chegando bemmmm atrasada por aqui com sua fic. desculpa o atraso, de verdade. não sou uma escritora necessariamente boa, mas juro que a fic foi feita com muito carinho - eu quase pirei quando recebi você no sorteio e vi que você era brasileira!! fiquei mandando mensagem em inglês pra manter o sigilo e não estragar a surpresa.

o título da fic e a inspiração vieram de uma música do Rizzih, como você deve ter percebido (aliás, não conhecia ele! fiquei super feliz de conhecer um artista novo). na real, eu tava querendo fazer uma fic com uma Reader brasileira e tradutora faziam décadas, e achei seu presente a oportunidade perfeita pra explorar esse relacionamento e essa personagem. ainda tenho algumas aventuras planejadas pra ela e pro Bri (um dos motivos da demora foi justamente o fato de que eu queria que essa fic fosse três ou quatro vezes mais longa, mas resolvi dividir em partes e ir postando conforme for conseguindo escrever). como as sequências não vão tecnicamente fazer parte do seu presente, apesar de serem da mesma história, me avisa se você quiser ser marcada quando eu postar! eu amei conhecer um pouquinho mais sobre você durante esse mês e espero poder conhecer mais ainda daqui pra frente. mil abraços e, novamente, espero que você goste! com muito amor, sua amiga oculta, finalmente podendo falar com você em português - S (🕺🏻)

[echotunes]

oh huh! thank you maybe I should look into used bookshops myself. learning Portuguese isn't that big of a thing here, it's more focused on French/Spanish/Italian as far as romance languages are concerned (for. geographical reasons) and I have actually picked up a couple of Spanish textbooks in the past year or so but not really looked at them yet. but maybe I'll get lucky and find something for Portuguese as well! (though. finding it for Brazilian Portuguese would be another level of luck. again for geographical reasons. ah I'll see)

I did find something in that Mega folder that looks interesting! it's from 2002 but it's geared towards German speakers learning PTBR so I will check that out. seems to have literal translations as well as meaning-translations which is fun to have. like that is how I remember these things in my head so it's fun to see the literal translations, especially considering how well some of the grammar structures translate 1:1 into German (like the reflexive verbs thing the original post was about).

that cases chart is interesting! I can see the resemblance to German, though there's one less case (we also have the genitive, which does the same that de/do/da particles do in Portuguese - indicates ownership but also is used in certain grammatical structures. and based on that chart Yiddish only seems to have nominative, accusative and dative). German is a bit more complicated, here's a chart I just quickly made to compare:

...and having just made that hm. maybe I get why this language is hard to learn if you're not used to cases actually. and you have to do this with nouns as well! but. well. that's beside the point. ty for the pointers!

having busuu explain cases without actually explaining cases is kind of wild to me. like yes this is dative. this just makes sense to me, a person who speaks a heavily case-dependent language. however hearing it explained as "we are performing and receiving the action of looking into the mirror" is like. well i suppose this is correct yes but what a way to phrase it

[pisati]

I did write some comments on your post, but that was an initial reaction after one read-through, and of course it was a lot to take in. I went to my guitar lesson, ate a little bit, dicked around for a bit, and read it through again. what’s on my mind is too much for character-limited replies so I figured I’d just write a post.

if you’re serious that the amount of stuff you told me is maybe 10% of all the things her parents did, then... holy shit, dude. it’s hard to imagine anyone growing up with that and not being completely brainwashed. I feel for her daughter too. hopefully once she gets her degree and gets a job she can get away from that bullshit. most people, I think, are reasonably paranoid about the possible threats that come from strangers on the internet, but that’s just extreme. the scottish mafia??? is that even a thing?? I’ve never even. heard of that, lmao. jesus.

I want to say when the internet was in its infancy, a lot of scammers saw it as an opportunity. that’s where the whole Nigerian prince thing and all that came about. first rule of the internet was not to trust anyone. no personal information, to anyone, ever. the thing is, the internet has changed drastically since then. social media has revolutionized the way everyday people use the internet, and very, very many everyday people use it. the chances you’re likely to run into a normal person just like yourself vs. a scam artist today are much, much higher than they were even a decade ago. some people don’t want to accept that things have changed. I mentioned my Brazilian friends on your post; my mom was pretty nervous at first when I told her about them. I met them just before I graduated high school, so I was 17. I actually was on Omegle (which was WAY worse than tumblr or twitter???) and I talked to a kid named Matia. he was a few years younger than me but his english was very good and he was a cool kid. we followed each other on twitter, and then his friends saw and a bunch of them followed me, asking him “quem é essa gringa matia??”-- who’s this foreign girl? they’d talk to me in english about music and ask me what it was like in the US; they were fascinated. they affectionately nicknamed me ‘gringa’; in Brazil it doesn’t have the same negative connotations as it can in Spanish-speaking countries; it literally means ‘foreginer’. I learned Portuguese inadvertently just from reading all the tweets they posted. they’d mess with me and tweet in slang and typo-ed Portuguese so I couldn’t google translate it, but when I learned enough Portuguese and read back on their old tweets, I had a good laugh because it was all stuff like “lol let’s mess with her so she can’t translate it, that’ll be so funny!” and they knew I’d get all frustrated because I didn’t know what it said, lol. like, just pure, innocent interactions between strangers on the internet. I had a ton of fun with it. and Portuguese even ended up being my best language, because I learned it not only in natural, informal contexts (rather than “hello, how are you?”), but I learned it through drunken slang and intentional typos and a whole assload of cursing, lmao.

I was nervous to tell my mom about it; I knew how she’d react. there was no way to tell her about all the jokes and conversations and how all of it was harmless. how I just knew they were real people like me (they were all around my age too). she didn’t want me to study abroad there, when I brought it up, or at least... if I did, she’d rather I’d have picked somewhere in Europe instead. I told her I’d skyped with my friend David, and once I even mailed him a package with an old shirt of mine (because I’d tweeted about how I had this IUP shirt and once I transferred I knew I wasn’t gonna wear it anymore, but I didn’t want to donate it; he said he wanted it and I was like well if you’re serious lol). I skyped another friend Guilherme once because he said he could help with an assignment I had for researching the grammar of non-native speakers of english, or something like that. she warmed up after a while. I think she realized that, hey, most normal people are also on the internet now. and there’s normal people in other countries, lol. but like. people in that generation are from a different era of information-sharing. it’s a totally different perspective. and if you’re the kind of person who worries entirely too much... well, you’ve seen what can happen.

you said it in your other post too (which, first of all, I’m really proud of you for opening up, as painful as I’m sure all this is, and second of all, I’m honored that you’re comfortable enough to share with me)... the thing about sounding ‘weak’ and ‘pathetic’. and... maybe it does feel like that. but given the circumstances? I think reacting like that is perfectly normal. I’m sure you know, but this kind of situation, all the things that happened... none of that is normal. you had a perfectly normal reaction to seriously abnormal events. it’s only natural to want to know why. when you love someone so much and think they love you too, and have your whole perception of the world turned on its head... it’s absolutely devastating. you don’t want to let it go. what else is there? you didn’t picture it vanishing so suddenly, and you feel like that’s it. 

I just want you to know, I don’t see weak or pathetic. I see someone very much like myself. who genuinely cares and feels so intensely and deeply and is sometimes even afraid of being too much. a lot of people don’t understand that we have pure intentions. they don’t understand how we feel because they don’t have that depth. 

anyway, I understand a little better how you feel about it. a lot of it wasn’t her fault; she pretty much had a gun to her head. or, multiple, depending how you want to look at it. she grew up with that bullshit. you said it wasn’t even the first time something like that happened to her. it’s really, really hard to defend yourself or stand up for yourself when that’s what you know. when that’s your family, who is supporting you and your daughter, and threatens to kick you out if you follow your own will. she was playing a losing game. it made me a little sad to read how hard you tried to make it work, when clearly you were being pushed away, but I understand, man. I’ve done the same thing. you want so badly to make it work, you feel like there’s always a way you can. the most devastating part of it all is realizing you can’t. and it can’t be fixed.

the thing that puzzles me, though, and please tell me if I cross a line here. I really don’t want to. I respect your feelings and I understand that your relationship with her lasted a long time; there’s so much packed into that time. I’ve told you a lot of the shitty parts of my relationship with A, and you’ve wondered why I didn’t kick him to the curb; I didn’t tell you about all the good parts there were too. I know how complicated and difficult those things can be. despite how much they hurt you, how they did it, how much more pain you were in because of what they did than anything you could ever do to them... you still care about them. a lot. 

I just... I guess I’m not 100% clear on the purpose she serves in your life at this point. of course you care about her. it’s only natural to, when they’re your best friend. you know so much about them and they know so much about you and you’ve shared so many good things and you just enjoy them as a person. god, I even remember writing some sappy poem or blog post or something about how, even after everything, A could have stabbed me in the gut and I would have apologized for getting my blood on him. but he also did more damage to me than anyone ever has. I realized this past summer (that’s a story for another time) with such sudden, horrible clarity that I burst out sobbing while I was driving home on the highway; what he did was irredeemable. there was nothing he could do to fix it. I had done everything I knew how to do to even stay his friend, and I finally told myself that it was either I continue to pursue this and make myself miserable and make him miserable (because he was allowed to have feelings for whoever he wanted; me getting upset over every new one would hurt him too), or I could just. let go. finally. and that was not a decision I ever wanted to face. I put it off for so long. I told myself there could always be a way to fix it. but it always came down to him putting in the effort. he was my best friend. he knew me better than anyone. a lot of the things you said about M, I’ve said about A. I’ve never been able to be that close to anyone before; he’d seen much more of me than I was comfortable showing anyone else. I didn’t know if I’d be able to be that close to anyone else. making the decision to let go of the one person I was that close to was the hardest thing I had to do this past year, right up there with having to talk to the team from the cremation place not 15 minutes after learning my dad was dead and watching them take him away in a body bag. 

anyway, I guess what I’m getting at is... you can still love her, and still care deeply about her, but also keep her in the past. this is just my conjecture, given that I don’t know anything about your relationship now, but it seems to me like trying to keep her in your life is not beneficial to either of you. I know you said you don’t keep people around based on the purpose they serve in your life, and that’s a good philosophy to have, for sure. I’m not arguing that at all. but I think there’s a lesson to take from Marie Kondo here (ha); when something has served its purpose in your life, you should understand when it’s time to let it go. thank it for all it brought to you, all it did for you, of course; there’s apparently a lot of Shinto traditional beliefs that influenced her organization philosophy that would be really interesting to read about. but anyway I don’t think it just applies to the physical clutter we all accumulate in our homes. we weigh ourselves down with all the things we keep. especially those that don’t ~spark joy~, lol.  if she’s really as brisk with you as you say... do you think she would be bothered if you disappeared as well? 

I know it’s never just that easy. I made that decision, and then later I learned that A had a whole clusterfuck of mental illnesses that he wasn’t even aware he had. it was bad. worse than he thought. but once he finally got into therapy and started journaling his moods, it became more obvious. he realized a lot of how he treated me came from that. when he told me, I felt just a tiny bit of my resolve crumble. how could I drop him like that, when he was clearly struggling and needed something stable? even just a good friend, who was patient and understanding, like I’ve always tried to be? I’m not the only friend he has, of course. he has plenty of people around. I don’t have to go back to trying so hard if I don’t want to, but I also felt like I couldn’t just abandon him. I realized it wasn’t entirely his fault. he still did what he did knowingly, he still knew how it hurt me, but it still wasn’t entirely his fault. I know you’ve seen that in M as well. it’s so complicated, I know.

I’m not trying to convince you of anything. maybe just trying to get you to think about it another way. you’ve got a lot of pain that you’ve buried and try your hardest not to deal with. I’ve done it too. get to it when we get to it, except we hope we never have to. but it makes healing so hard when we don’t address it and subsequently deal with it. I wonder if you think it’s possible to heal the way you hope to and also keep her in your life. I’m sure in some way it is, but I wonder how you picture that possible future. I’m still trying to work that out for myself, with my situation. 

anyway, I really do appreciate you taking the time to help me understand your demons better. and... if it means anything, I don’t see you as broken. even if that’s how you feel. I mean, shit. all of that is enough to break anyone. I’ve never even been in a relationship, let alone had one that got to the marriage-talk, engagement-ring, wedding-dress, baby-name point. for someone that feels as intensely as we do, no less... I can only imagine. I see how the innocence, so to speak, was ripped from your hands. I understand how you feel changed by it. I see the darkness in you that I’ve seen in myself, but I see the light there too. you need to feel safe so that light has time to heal and grow again. 

[ellie-mnop]

Hey! Sorry if this is bothering you or anything but I was wondering how you are learning? And if it’s online do you mind linking me to some?🙏🏻

Hi! I’m using several different tools and methods and resources to learn! I’m not sure whether you mean for Portuguese in particular or if you are looking for stuff that can be applied to other languages you’re trying to learn, so I’ll give you everything I have!

Grammar/Guided Practice:

Duolingo: This is the first thing I started using. Most people have heard of it already. It teaches grammatical concepts along with vocabulary and stuff, in a sequence made up of various themes, and the “Clubs” feature provides more open ended questions to practice writing skills. It doesn’t provide much in the way of explanations of new concepts, but every sentence has a comments section where you can ask questions and look at explanations other users have written. It doesn’t have speaking practice for Portuguese, although I think I have heard that it does for other languages, or used to, or something. https://www.duolingo.com/

LingoDeer: This is one I just started using and I’m really enjoying it. It works in a way that’s similar to Duolingo, although it provides more actual explanations of things instead of hoping for you to figure it out yourself, which is nice. It also has speaking exercises, which you record and play back to compare your pronunciation to an official example, which I find really helpful. It was designed with Asian languages in mind, and the website hasn’t been updated to point out that they very recently added betas of some other languages, but don’t worry, Portuguese is available. The activities are more interesting than those on Duolingo, but the sentences are less so, and there are no comments sections. https://www.lingodeer.com/

VerbSquirt: I installed this app because I needed more practice with verb conjugations than Duolingo was giving me. You choose the category and tense you want to practice, and it gives you some verbs, and you conjugate them as fast as you can from a multiple-choice list. You get more points for going faster. I don’t usually like or do well with games that rely on going as fast as you can, but I’m okay with this one because nothing bad happens if you don’t get a high score. It also teaches you the meanings of the verbs you’re working with, so it’s an alright way to get a little extra vocabulary too. The paid version is the same but with more words available. I think it’s based on European Portuguese (it includes conjugations for “tu” and its icon resembles Portugual’s flag) but I haven’t been confused by it even though the rest of the resources I’m using are Brazilian. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.jandaya.vrbsqrtenptfree&hl=en_US

Conjuga-me: This one is not an app for practicing anything, but I’m putting it in this category anyway because it’s still grammar. You put in a verb, and it shows you all of the conjugations in all of the tenses, and emphasizes, through text color, which forms are irregular or use special spelling rules. It helps, if you’re not sure about a conjugation you need and want to look it up. http://www.conjuga-me.net/

Explanations and Information:

Transparent Portuguese and Street Smart Brazil: These are two different websites, but I’m listing them together because they way I use them is very similar. They are blogs with interesting articles about various aspects of the language, such as grammar concepts, the usage of certain words, regional variations, or cultural concepts. They also have various resources to practice. For example, Transparent regularly posts articles to listen to and read, and sometimes posts songs with explanations of the lyrics, and Street Smart Brazil does articles with links to things, like movies in Portuguese on Netflix. Transparent has a Word of the Day every day, too, which is neat, and Street Smart has a YouTube channel. https://blogs.transparent.com/portuguese/ and https://streetsmartbrazil.com/blog/

I also sometimes use explanations of things on YouTube, but I mostly find those individually, I can’t think of any channels to recommend or anything.

Vocabulary and Dictionaries:

Reverso Context: This is a very helpful resource to look up words, because when it gives you a word, it also gives you a whole bunch of examples of that word used in various sentences. That way, you can see if the word has the connotation you want, what prepositions are used with it, and so on. http://context.reverso.net/translation/

Wiktionary: This one can be a little unwieldy to use, because all of the pages have so much information, but it’s very helpful. The lists of translations that are on the page of any given English word specify which definition they are translating, so that if a word has multiple meanings, you can find the one you want, and it has pronunciations in audio and IPA. (I can’t read IPA, but it’s helpful in finding out more about a particular sound I’m having trouble with.) https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Main_Page

Wikipedia: Specifically, the menu on the top or side of any Wikipedia article that allows you to view the version of an article in any language it has been written in. The title will be translated too, and so you can find out what that concept is called in the language you select. This is helpful for finding translations of titles or multi-word terms that might not be translated word-for-word, like “data storage” or “The Land Before Time”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

TinyCards: This has all of the vocabulary lists from DuoLingo, if you’re looking for a way to practice the vocabulary you learn from there. It’s just a flashcard app, but it’s a pretty nice one, I like it. https://tinycards.duolingo.com/en

Talking To Native Speakers:

HelloTalk: Initially, when I had questions about what I was learning, I asked my friend Sofia, because she is a native speaker and offered to help and stuff. Unfortunately, I cannot send you a link to install her. However, the next thing I did to find more people to talk to was install a language exchange app, where the point of it is to talk to people who already speak the language you are trying to learn, and who are trying to learn a language you already speak. There are many such apps, and I mostly just installed HelloTalk because it was the first one I heard about, but I like it a lot. I have met several lovely people there, and it’s easy to find people to talk to – I actually get more messages than I can answer. https://www.hellotalk.com/

Media And Content To Practice With:

Radiooooo: Useful for finding songs to listen to. I use it by choosing a country that speaks Portuguese, and a decade with a style I enjoy. Then, when it gives me a song I really like, I screenshot the title and artist so that I can find it again to add to a playlist or use other ways. Doesn’t work on Firefox. http://radiooooo.com/

Letras.com: A lyrics website, useful in conjunction with Radiooooo or with any other method of finding songs. Looking at the lyrics while listening to the songs helps with focusing on the words, and with building reading and listening skills together. https://www.letras.com/

Turma da Mônica: Comics are a nice way to practice reading, because the pictures help with figuring out what’s going on and confirming your understanding of what they text says. These comics are pretty cool and cute, and there are a lot of them. The ones at the link are free online on the official website, and there are also many that have been published in print if you can get those somehow. http://turmadamonica.uol.com.br/quadrinhos/

Games: I went through and checked the menus of the games on my phone and the store pages of the ones in my Steam library, to find out which ones I could play in Portuguese, and I recommend doing that, to find choices that correspond to your taste in games. Some of the ones I found include Battle for Wesnoth (a partial translation, you have to edit your preferences file to get it), Bridge Constructor, Game Dev Tycoon, Knights of Pen and Paper (this one was developed in Brazil, actually), Stardew Valley, Terraria, and on the phone Galaga Wars, and My Tamagotchi Forever. I haven’t tested all of them yet.

YouTube: I don’t have an overarching method or anything of finding YouTube videos to practice with, I just put in search terms that sound interesting in Portuguese. I’ve watched news clips, interviews, sing-along videos of kids’ songs, videos about Pokemon, videos where kids try different foods, all sorts of things. I don’t understand most of what I watch yet, but I repeat the videos however many times I need to try to catch what I can.

I’m sure I’m forgetting some things, but this is most of what I use and do.

[airoasis]

How to learn any language easily | Matthew Youlden | TEDxClapham

New Post has been published on https://hititem.kr/how-to-learn-any-language-easily-matthew-youlden-tedxclapham-3/

How to learn any language easily | Matthew Youlden | TEDxClapham

Translator: Hoa Pham Reviewer: Denise RQ studying a language can believe slightly like rocket science, something out of this world and out of reach for the giant majority of us. This is not a belief, nevertheless, just held by way of many English monolinguals on our island. It is usually shared with the aid of many of our linguistic cousins further afield, say, in the us or Australia. Let’s be sincere: in relation to studying languages or speaking them, we are the style of people that likes to believe we’re fluent in a mess of numerous languages akin to Geordie, Kiwi, Cockney, or what about Canadian? Do not get me incorrect.I’m very, very happy with my Mancunian heritage, but i wouldn’t recommend it can be a separate language just but. In the end, we don’t want subtitles after we are looking at Coronation street, now will we? Even though i can see you two pronouncing, "I do." (Laughter) yet, despite this, in the event you have been to cross the Channel, or say, if you are feeling somewhat extra adventurous, go the Severn Estuary into Wales, there you could possibly in finding that speakme a different language or being bilingual is simply a truth.Yet, there and extra afield, many are still convinced of the very fact this can be a long, challenging, fairly painful, and dare I say, daunting project. In this room of a hundred humans, i would bet that as a minimum 15 other languages are spoken apart from English. Actually, the final census of 2011 published that a magnificent 22% of Londoners – that is 22%, one in 4, practically – communicate an extra language at home aside from English. I myself, at the same time as a Mancunian, communicate roughly 20 languages, and of those, around 1/2 I communicate fluently. And the query I get asked by way of men and women probably the most is, "Why?" (Laughter) well, the reply, for me as a minimum, is as a substitute easy. I’m satisfied studying languages, any language per Se, is without a doubt convenient. And that i wish to exhibit you how.As a linguist, a polyglot, and a lecturer, i do know what it entails to be taught and study a language. And some of the greatest obstacles we’re faced when learning are myths. And that i clearly suppose that we ought to debunk them. So as to bear in mind these extra with no trouble, I got here up with the best and pleasant sounding acronym D.I.E. (Laughter) which funnily sufficient, should you write it out now not pronounce, should you write it out, it is one of the words for ‘the’ in German. Fantasy quantity one: finding out a language is easily too complicated. I’ll on no account be capable to communicate a different language fairly just like the language I used to be born with. Technically, you’re not born with a language. Every body here would have ended up, with say, eastern as our first language. We were quite simply surrounded or immersed within the language most often from an extraordinarily early age. There are humans, nevertheless, out there – many of them, actually – who began to study a language, the second or might be even the 0.33, a lot in a while in life.And guess what? They’re now entirely fluent on this language or these other languages even perhaps more so than of their so-known as mom tongue. Why is that this? Considering the fact that there is not any cutoff date in which you ought to have realized one other language. Feel about what number of people who say, "Ugh! My youngsters are doing French in institution. I fairly want them to become fluent.But I can’t, no approach, it can be impossible. I will have to’ve without problems paid more concentration when I was once at school." good, stories divulge that at the same time children generally are a lot faster at choosing up a brand new language than humans older than them, it can be simply us – which you can simply breathe as a sign of comfort – it’s us, the adults, who are extra robust at finding out them. Why is that this? Considering that now we have the experience of learning. We know how one can learn already. Myth quantity two: languages are with ease beside the point. I don’t need to study one other language at all. And as we hear, and regrettably hear fairly a lot – I used to be going to do in a cockney accent, but I is not going to do it at all. I’ll spare myself the embarrassment of doing that – languages … Every person speaks English, anyway. Good, apart from the obvious benefits of talking an extra language – for example, monetary advantages and intellectual benefits, i.E., better pay, extra job possibilities, preserving us mentally fit, and virtually serving to to stave off neurological diseases equivalent to Alzheimer’s- there are actual hidden gemstones we can discover when we converse a further language. How about getting an upgrade in your hotel room, as was once recently the case with my uncle earlier than going to Turkey on vacation? He asked me if I might ship him over just a few phrases and greetings within the language that he would try out within the hotel.Turns up, caught over this suitcase, throws out a few sentences in Turkish, and bam!, he is given an improve on his motel room immediately. (Laughter) You might no longer normally get an upgrade to your motel room. I can’t promise you this. Nevertheless, i will be able to promise that you just possibly simply maybe, via an extra language, will meet the love of your existence. We all don’t forget Jamie from Love sincerely finding out Portuguese for Aurlia. And in fact, practically one in ten Brits is married to any individual who was born overseas. Additionally, the Guardian reported on study showing that folks who are ready to speak two languages or extra higher adapt or are better prepared at dealing with problems, that they are better at multitasking and prioritizing duties. That is surely a so much sought-after ability in our day and age when all and sundry appeared to be glued to our phones. I ponder how many individuals now who’re watching this shall be glued to their telephones, and what number of are actually going to bilingual? Fable quantity three: you have to be an expat and be in a location the place the language is continuously spoken, even to just get a grab of the language.There is no harm in without difficulty packing up and moving to a village within the core of nowhere, however it’s not clearly fundamental. Now the high-quality unknown: my brother and i – i’ll depart you to decide who’s who; he’s virtually my twin brother – my brother and that i whilst being based in Berlin, Germany, decided to undertake the project of studying Turkish in simply seven days. We decided to undertake the assignment of finding out Turkish in just seven days in order to show what you are able to do through conveniently striking your mind to it. I am no longer saying all of us have to be going available in the market and learning a language in per week nor that it is virtually feasible to gain knowledge of undoubtedly the whole lot there is in such a brief space of time. I will assure you, it’s not. Perfection isn’t the purpose here. The goal, nevertheless, is to get as excellent as we almost certainly can in a special language, within the shortest time viable. This means to the dismay of university academics all during the globe, "Take shortcuts." The great thing about these shortcuts is we will practice them to any language that we wish to learn.And moreover, they are so easy, you perhaps left thinking at the finish, "Why did not I consider of that?" So let’s take a appear at these shortcuts. Number one: analyze the similarities, focus on identical elements. As audio system of English, we already comprehend a lot about different languages, given the fact that our language itself, very nearly, is a Germanic language with the wealth of influences and vocabulary from a mess of one of a kind languages as diverse as Latin, Hebrew, or Hindi. Doing this may occasionally help boost patterns in the language and likewise will help us to wager the that means and formation of phrases and things that we do not yet recognize. As you see in this slide, for illustration, we will see how closely associated English is to fellow different Germanic languages and even to languages which might be, on this case, Romance languages, besides the fact that children that English is a Germanic language just about.Shortcut number two: hold it simple. In the beginning sight, you might feel you are learning a language that doesn’t have that much in long-established with our own, but by way of focusing on handy elements, we will be capable to study it much rapidly due to the fact every language has easy factors to it. Some languages simplest have two or three tenses. For example, you end up saying ‘I had,’ on this one form, for ‘I had,’i have had,’ and ‘I had had,’ and ‘i’m’ also can also be ‘I will be’ and ‘i would be.’ In different instances, if we look at, for instance, German, now we have a case of developed vocabulary that is derived from a few simple words or verbs.In this case, we’ve got the verb ‘sprechen’ which is ‘to converse,’ which has now long past on and lent itself to become ‘besprechen’ – to talk about, ‘entsprechen’ – to correspond, ‘versprechen’ and ‘absprechen,’ and so on, and so forth. Shortcut quantity three: keep it primary. Primarily on the commencing of our method, we need to ensure that it is principal to us. Not all people is learning German as a way to speak about industry with colleagues in Berlin. Suppose about this. As speakers of English, we do not know each single phrase in the Oxford English Dictionary. So why will have to we worry about remembering every single word we encounter within the new language? We quite simply must make it relevant to our possess specific challenge correct now.With regards to finding out a language, perhaps essentially the most critical detail is time. And through time, i do not imply years upon years of never-ending finding out as some people nonetheless like to think. How long does it take to gain knowledge of a language? How about if I had been to inform you that half-hour per day are a satisfactory and mighty start? Thirty minutes – these are minutes all of us have. Be ten within the morning, ten in the afternoon, ten within the evening, or 30 minutes in effectively one go in order to work, to tuition, to tuition, out in the night, meeting associates, at the same time we’re on the coach or bus.All of us have all these minutes that we will decide to learn. In addition, by using learning for smaller periods and usual intervals, we is not going to consider so overwhelmed by the language. And even higher, studying for normal durations signifies that it is extra robust, considering that possibilities are that if you are finding out for once a week or as soon as a fortnight, by the time you next come to gain knowledge of, you’ll have already got forgotten what you at the beginning learned. The intention accordingly is to fit language studying into our every day routines and no longer the opposite direction round. And by means of doing this, there isn’t any reason why after easily one month, you can’t get by means of for your new language. These lively types of studying, we ought to compliment them with what i would like to consult as passive types of finding out.Having breakfast: swap the radio on and take heed to a station in the language, grow to be familiar with the music of the language. The track is not going to most effective help you get used to the sounds, to the intonation, and to the rhythm but the words you’ll hear will also aid you partner them; since the songs, and you’ll be able to be competent to companion them with these songs, as a result increasing our vocabulary.Had a difficult day? Treat yourself to a television series or a movie in the language, and put subtitles on, in English, after which, others can become a member of and watch with you as good. We all know how everyone appears to be going loopy about this Scandinavian television crime sequence on the moment – a few of which had been dubbed into English; preserve it fashioned. By means of doing this, this may occasionally get you off to a great begin to move on and to clearly grasp your language. There are three principles, i like to consult them as the golden ideas of language learning, that every and every body of us must be doing when going about finding out a language.The primary rule is – watch for it – the primary rule is live the language, communicate it, read it, write it, dream in it, sing it even; sing to yourself. My brother and that i when we started learning Greek, we determined to write down songs in the language. Don’t worry, i am no longer about to embarrass my brother, and i definitely is not going to be singing for you all this morning. That said, as a way to master the language, you need to make it yours, possess the language.So why no longer put your cellphone or pc within the language you’re finding out? Quantity two: make errors. Yes, you heard me adequately. Make as many as you want. Why? On account that we be trained by means of making mistakes. It’s in reality the only manner we are able to get matters correct. As youngsters, we’re even anticipated to make them. However as adults, we are frightened considering the fact that they make us suppose vulnerable. Admitting from the starting we don’t know most likely everything there’s to learn about this new language won’t prevent us from finding out it. Additionally, it’s going to certainly give us the liberty to move on and to grasp it. So go forth and make as many mistakes as you adore. The last rule, and that is the main one, and that is most important: make it enjoyable.Grammar rules don’t seem to be consistently fun. I imply, i really like grammar, however I understand that now not all people is so captivated with it; not certain why, although. However don’t forget, some thing you can do in English, you are able to do in some other language, so make it enjoyable. And absolutely, by way of making it enjoyable, with the aid of making the method unique, you are serving to yourself stay inspired. And the extra prompted you’re, the better your possibilities are of succeeding. So go out and let your creative juices glide. The nice thing as well is why no longer try and get humans, other humans, concerned? Say, colleagues, neighbors, and switch it into a small, pleasant competitors. Sincerely, reviews exhibit for those who get a friendly competition going, that your chances of succeeding are significantly better, and they increase your efficiency. Languages are traditionally perceived to be the great unknown. We prefer to suppose of them as whatever unfamiliar, and yet, we know a lot about them given that all human languages have their own bizarre but gorgeous approaches of expressing strategies, concepts, and fact, even supposing we’re no longer aware of it to start with.By way of now delving into the unknown and realizing the acquainted, we will be competent to master one of the crucial pleasant, lucrative, and efficient expertise we possess as humans: human communique. And who would withstand looking to gain knowledge of a language with these linguistic pearls? The primary one could be, as you say in French, (French) Ayez Les dents longues, (English) which is ‘be ambitious.’ It literally means, nonetheless, ‘have lengthy teeth.’ (Laughter) Mine are not that long. I’d prefer to desire you all in Italian (Italian) In bocca al lupo, (English) which is ‘good luck,’ but literally way ‘into the mouth of the wolf.’ (Laughter) And subsequently, as we say in Ukrainian, (Ukrainian) Skilky mov ty znayesh – stilky raziv ty lyudyna, (English) which means that "The more languages you already know, the more folks you might be." experience learning a new language.(Applause) .

[batterymonster2021]

How to learn any language easily | Matthew Youlden | TEDxClapham

New Post has been published on https://hititem.kr/how-to-learn-any-language-easily-matthew-youlden-tedxclapham-3/

How to learn any language easily | Matthew Youlden | TEDxClapham

Translator: Hoa Pham Reviewer: Denise RQ studying a language can believe slightly like rocket science, something out of this world and out of reach for the giant majority of us. This is not a belief, nevertheless, just held by way of many English monolinguals on our island. It is usually shared with the aid of many of our linguistic cousins further afield, say, in the us or Australia. Let’s be sincere: in relation to studying languages or speaking them, we are the style of people that likes to believe we’re fluent in a mess of numerous languages akin to Geordie, Kiwi, Cockney, or what about Canadian? Do not get me incorrect.I’m very, very happy with my Mancunian heritage, but i wouldn’t recommend it can be a separate language just but. In the end, we don’t want subtitles after we are looking at Coronation street, now will we? Even though i can see you two pronouncing, "I do." (Laughter) yet, despite this, in the event you have been to cross the Channel, or say, if you are feeling somewhat extra adventurous, go the Severn Estuary into Wales, there you could possibly in finding that speakme a different language or being bilingual is simply a truth.Yet, there and extra afield, many are still convinced of the very fact this can be a long, challenging, fairly painful, and dare I say, daunting project. In this room of a hundred humans, i would bet that as a minimum 15 other languages are spoken apart from English. Actually, the final census of 2011 published that a magnificent 22% of Londoners – that is 22%, one in 4, practically – communicate an extra language at home aside from English. I myself, at the same time as a Mancunian, communicate roughly 20 languages, and of those, around 1/2 I communicate fluently. And the query I get asked by way of men and women probably the most is, "Why?" (Laughter) well, the reply, for me as a minimum, is as a substitute easy. I’m satisfied studying languages, any language per Se, is without a doubt convenient. And that i wish to exhibit you how.As a linguist, a polyglot, and a lecturer, i do know what it entails to be taught and study a language. And some of the greatest obstacles we’re faced when learning are myths. And that i clearly suppose that we ought to debunk them. So as to bear in mind these extra with no trouble, I got here up with the best and pleasant sounding acronym D.I.E. (Laughter) which funnily sufficient, should you write it out now not pronounce, should you write it out, it is one of the words for ‘the’ in German. Fantasy quantity one: finding out a language is easily too complicated. I’ll on no account be capable to communicate a different language fairly just like the language I used to be born with. Technically, you’re not born with a language. Every body here would have ended up, with say, eastern as our first language. We were quite simply surrounded or immersed within the language most often from an extraordinarily early age. There are humans, nevertheless, out there – many of them, actually – who began to study a language, the second or might be even the 0.33, a lot in a while in life.And guess what? They’re now entirely fluent on this language or these other languages even perhaps more so than of their so-known as mom tongue. Why is that this? Considering the fact that there is not any cutoff date in which you ought to have realized one other language. Feel about what number of people who say, "Ugh! My youngsters are doing French in institution. I fairly want them to become fluent.But I can’t, no approach, it can be impossible. I will have to’ve without problems paid more concentration when I was once at school." good, stories divulge that at the same time children generally are a lot faster at choosing up a brand new language than humans older than them, it can be simply us – which you can simply breathe as a sign of comfort – it’s us, the adults, who are extra robust at finding out them. Why is that this? Considering that now we have the experience of learning. We know how one can learn already. Myth quantity two: languages are with ease beside the point. I don’t need to study one other language at all. And as we hear, and regrettably hear fairly a lot – I used to be going to do in a cockney accent, but I is not going to do it at all. I’ll spare myself the embarrassment of doing that – languages … Every person speaks English, anyway. Good, apart from the obvious benefits of talking an extra language – for example, monetary advantages and intellectual benefits, i.E., better pay, extra job possibilities, preserving us mentally fit, and virtually serving to to stave off neurological diseases equivalent to Alzheimer’s- there are actual hidden gemstones we can discover when we converse a further language. How about getting an upgrade in your hotel room, as was once recently the case with my uncle earlier than going to Turkey on vacation? He asked me if I might ship him over just a few phrases and greetings within the language that he would try out within the hotel.Turns up, caught over this suitcase, throws out a few sentences in Turkish, and bam!, he is given an improve on his motel room immediately. (Laughter) You might no longer normally get an upgrade to your motel room. I can’t promise you this. Nevertheless, i will be able to promise that you just possibly simply maybe, via an extra language, will meet the love of your existence. We all don’t forget Jamie from Love sincerely finding out Portuguese for Aurlia. And in fact, practically one in ten Brits is married to any individual who was born overseas. Additionally, the Guardian reported on study showing that folks who are ready to speak two languages or extra higher adapt or are better prepared at dealing with problems, that they are better at multitasking and prioritizing duties. That is surely a so much sought-after ability in our day and age when all and sundry appeared to be glued to our phones. I ponder how many individuals now who’re watching this shall be glued to their telephones, and what number of are actually going to bilingual? Fable quantity three: you have to be an expat and be in a location the place the language is continuously spoken, even to just get a grab of the language.There is no harm in without difficulty packing up and moving to a village within the core of nowhere, however it’s not clearly fundamental. Now the high-quality unknown: my brother and i – i’ll depart you to decide who’s who; he’s virtually my twin brother – my brother and that i whilst being based in Berlin, Germany, decided to undertake the project of studying Turkish in simply seven days. We decided to undertake the assignment of finding out Turkish in just seven days in order to show what you are able to do through conveniently striking your mind to it. I am no longer saying all of us have to be going available in the market and learning a language in per week nor that it is virtually feasible to gain knowledge of undoubtedly the whole lot there is in such a brief space of time. I will assure you, it’s not. Perfection isn’t the purpose here. The goal, nevertheless, is to get as excellent as we almost certainly can in a special language, within the shortest time viable. This means to the dismay of university academics all during the globe, "Take shortcuts." The great thing about these shortcuts is we will practice them to any language that we wish to learn.And moreover, they are so easy, you perhaps left thinking at the finish, "Why did not I consider of that?" So let’s take a appear at these shortcuts. Number one: analyze the similarities, focus on identical elements. As audio system of English, we already comprehend a lot about different languages, given the fact that our language itself, very nearly, is a Germanic language with the wealth of influences and vocabulary from a mess of one of a kind languages as diverse as Latin, Hebrew, or Hindi. Doing this may occasionally help boost patterns in the language and likewise will help us to wager the that means and formation of phrases and things that we do not yet recognize. As you see in this slide, for illustration, we will see how closely associated English is to fellow different Germanic languages and even to languages which might be, on this case, Romance languages, besides the fact that children that English is a Germanic language just about.Shortcut number two: hold it simple. In the beginning sight, you might feel you are learning a language that doesn’t have that much in long-established with our own, but by way of focusing on handy elements, we will be capable to study it much rapidly due to the fact every language has easy factors to it. Some languages simplest have two or three tenses. For example, you end up saying ‘I had,’ on this one form, for ‘I had,’i have had,’ and ‘I had had,’ and ‘i’m’ also can also be ‘I will be’ and ‘i would be.’ In different instances, if we look at, for instance, German, now we have a case of developed vocabulary that is derived from a few simple words or verbs.In this case, we’ve got the verb ‘sprechen’ which is ‘to converse,’ which has now long past on and lent itself to become ‘besprechen’ – to talk about, ‘entsprechen’ – to correspond, ‘versprechen’ and ‘absprechen,’ and so on, and so forth. Shortcut quantity three: keep it primary. Primarily on the commencing of our method, we need to ensure that it is principal to us. Not all people is learning German as a way to speak about industry with colleagues in Berlin. Suppose about this. As speakers of English, we do not know each single phrase in the Oxford English Dictionary. So why will have to we worry about remembering every single word we encounter within the new language? We quite simply must make it relevant to our possess specific challenge correct now.With regards to finding out a language, perhaps essentially the most critical detail is time. And through time, i do not imply years upon years of never-ending finding out as some people nonetheless like to think. How long does it take to gain knowledge of a language? How about if I had been to inform you that half-hour per day are a satisfactory and mighty start? Thirty minutes – these are minutes all of us have. Be ten within the morning, ten in the afternoon, ten within the evening, or 30 minutes in effectively one go in order to work, to tuition, to tuition, out in the night, meeting associates, at the same time we’re on the coach or bus.All of us have all these minutes that we will decide to learn. In addition, by using learning for smaller periods and usual intervals, we is not going to consider so overwhelmed by the language. And even higher, studying for normal durations signifies that it is extra robust, considering that possibilities are that if you are finding out for once a week or as soon as a fortnight, by the time you next come to gain knowledge of, you’ll have already got forgotten what you at the beginning learned. The intention accordingly is to fit language studying into our every day routines and no longer the opposite direction round. And by means of doing this, there isn’t any reason why after easily one month, you can’t get by means of for your new language. These lively types of studying, we ought to compliment them with what i would like to consult as passive types of finding out.Having breakfast: swap the radio on and take heed to a station in the language, grow to be familiar with the music of the language. The track is not going to most effective help you get used to the sounds, to the intonation, and to the rhythm but the words you’ll hear will also aid you partner them; since the songs, and you’ll be able to be competent to companion them with these songs, as a result increasing our vocabulary.Had a difficult day? Treat yourself to a television series or a movie in the language, and put subtitles on, in English, after which, others can become a member of and watch with you as good. We all know how everyone appears to be going loopy about this Scandinavian television crime sequence on the moment – a few of which had been dubbed into English; preserve it fashioned. By means of doing this, this may occasionally get you off to a great begin to move on and to clearly grasp your language. There are three principles, i like to consult them as the golden ideas of language learning, that every and every body of us must be doing when going about finding out a language.The primary rule is – watch for it – the primary rule is live the language, communicate it, read it, write it, dream in it, sing it even; sing to yourself. My brother and that i when we started learning Greek, we determined to write down songs in the language. Don’t worry, i am no longer about to embarrass my brother, and i definitely is not going to be singing for you all this morning. That said, as a way to master the language, you need to make it yours, possess the language.So why no longer put your cellphone or pc within the language you’re finding out? Quantity two: make errors. Yes, you heard me adequately. Make as many as you want. Why? On account that we be trained by means of making mistakes. It’s in reality the only manner we are able to get matters correct. As youngsters, we’re even anticipated to make them. However as adults, we are frightened considering the fact that they make us suppose vulnerable. Admitting from the starting we don’t know most likely everything there’s to learn about this new language won’t prevent us from finding out it. Additionally, it’s going to certainly give us the liberty to move on and to grasp it. So go forth and make as many mistakes as you adore. The last rule, and that is the main one, and that is most important: make it enjoyable.Grammar rules don’t seem to be consistently fun. I imply, i really like grammar, however I understand that now not all people is so captivated with it; not certain why, although. However don’t forget, some thing you can do in English, you are able to do in some other language, so make it enjoyable. And absolutely, by way of making it enjoyable, with the aid of making the method unique, you are serving to yourself stay inspired. And the extra prompted you’re, the better your possibilities are of succeeding. So go out and let your creative juices glide. The nice thing as well is why no longer try and get humans, other humans, concerned? Say, colleagues, neighbors, and switch it into a small, pleasant competitors. Sincerely, reviews exhibit for those who get a friendly competition going, that your chances of succeeding are significantly better, and they increase your efficiency. Languages are traditionally perceived to be the great unknown. We prefer to suppose of them as whatever unfamiliar, and yet, we know a lot about them given that all human languages have their own bizarre but gorgeous approaches of expressing strategies, concepts, and fact, even supposing we’re no longer aware of it to start with.By way of now delving into the unknown and realizing the acquainted, we will be competent to master one of the crucial pleasant, lucrative, and efficient expertise we possess as humans: human communique. And who would withstand looking to gain knowledge of a language with these linguistic pearls? The primary one could be, as you say in French, (French) Ayez Les dents longues, (English) which is ‘be ambitious.’ It literally means, nonetheless, ‘have lengthy teeth.’ (Laughter) Mine are not that long. I’d prefer to desire you all in Italian (Italian) In bocca al lupo, (English) which is ‘good luck,’ but literally way ‘into the mouth of the wolf.’ (Laughter) And subsequently, as we say in Ukrainian, (Ukrainian) Skilky mov ty znayesh – stilky raziv ty lyudyna, (English) which means that "The more languages you already know, the more folks you might be." experience learning a new language.(Applause) .

[tlatollotl]

When you take a close look at the flowery but meticulous lettering in the 17th-century book, you can see that many people wrote the script, at different times. The book includes everything from sermons to poems, and there’s a dedication to Pope Urban IV.

The Libro de Sermones Varios en Lengua Quiche, from 1690, is the oldest manuscript in the collection of the Smithsonian’s National Anthropological Archives. It provides not only a fascinating look at the evolution of the Maya K’iche’ language, but it also tells a stark tale of religious history.

“When I see a document like this it just blows me away to see the care with which the language was put on paper by so many different people,” says Gabriela Pérez-Báez, curator of linguistics in the anthropology department at the National Museum of Natural History. She says the book is written in four different languages, including K’iche’, Latin, Spanish and Kaqchikel. “The paper is thicker, the book smells differently, it is really amazing to see the care with which it was written,” Pérez-Báez marvels.

The Libro de Sermones is part of the Objects of Wonder exhibition now on view at the National Museum of Natural History. The book has also been digitized so that scholars can peruse the book both to answer questions about history, but also to document the changes in the K’iche’ language as the Spanish were taking over the Maya empire (THERE WAS NO MAYA EMPIRE! COME ON SMITHSONIAN!) in the 16th century. The text in the Libro de Sermones is very similar to the K’iche’ language that was spoken before contact with the Spanish. The book was given to one Felipe Silva by Pablo Agurdia of Guatemala in 1907, and Silva apparently donated it to the Smithsonian Institution sometime after that, but there are no documents explaining exactly how that happened. Today, Pérez-Báez says the book is quite relevant and important to scholars.

“K’iche’ is a Mayan language which dates back several thousand years. It certainly precedes Spanish by hundreds of years. It is a language which is spoken in Guatemala, so Mayan languages are still in use across what is now Guatemalan Mexico and have spread as far as the Northern third of Mexico. But otherwise they are concentrated in Mesoamerica—the South of Mexico and in a little bit of Central America, Guatemala and so on,” Pérez-Báez says. “Languages change naturally, but they also change when they come into contact with other languages… . Once contact with a Colonial language becomes very intense … the influence of a language like Spanish on indigenous languages is greater and greater over time.”

K’iche’ is spoken today by more than one million people, and thousands of K’iche’ speakers now live in the United States, according to Sergio Romero, a professor in the department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Texas at Austin.

“Lots of migrants, especially in the last two decades, are K’iche’ speakers. I am often called to translate on behalf of K’iche’ speakers who don’t speak Spanish,” Romero says, adding that K’iche’ is one of 33 different Mayan languages. “There are different dynamics to each of these 33 languages, and each of them has a lot of regional variation. So between K’iche’ and Ixil, another Mayan language, there is as much difference as between English and … Hindi.”

Romero says one of the reasons the Libro de Sermones is important, is that in the 19th century around the time of Guatemalan independence, K’iche’ lost its status as the official language in the region. But there are many documents including wills, land deeds and various sorts of chronicles and other texts written in K’iche’ from the 16th and 17th centuries. There are also pastoral texts, catechisms and confessionals used by priests to both learn the language and try to convert the K'iche.’

But Romero says the K’iche’ resisted being converted to Catholicism, and there is evidence of that in the book, which he says is a “crucial” tool in illustrating that fact.

“It’s the way in which the K’iche’ were able to cope with the Spanish invasion and the Christian invasion … . They didn’t assimilate,” he says. “What they did was appropriate certain elements of Spanish culture to be able to adapt and defend and protect their own spaces of political and cultural sovereignty. So K’iche’ religion today is really a hybrid religion that has elements of Spanish origin and elements of Christian origin and this document shows that very well. You can see how certain words were actually bent by the Spanish to be able to convey certain meanings and you can see how those certain words were interpreted in a different way by the K’iche.’”

Romero points to the word mak, which is used today to reference sin, as in Christian sin. But in the 15th century it meant ‘will,’ as in your will to do something. Sin, Romero says, didn’t exist as a concept to the K’iche’ because they were not Christian. Dominican missionaries took that particular word and shifted its meaning so it could be used to convey the theological notion of sin.

“The only way to resist was to adapt,” Romero says, “but the adaptation was not decided upon by the Spanish.”

He adds that even today, the Catholic hierarchy in Guatemala still cannot accept the fact that Christian practices among the K’iche’ are simply different than those of non-indigenous Catholics. Romero says the K’iche’ religion of today is the result of this “interesting dialogue” between Dominican missionaries who wanted to impose a certain brand of Catholicism and the K’iche’ who just picked whatever was interesting and useful to them.

The Smithsonian’s Pérez-Báez, who was raised as a Catholic in Mexico City, explains that even in an urban Spanish environment children are taught that one must be a good person, or they will burn in hell. She is not a K’iche’ expert, but Pérez-Báez thinks that the sermons in this book likely contain similar rhetoric that was used to coerce people into converting to Christianity.

To her, Libro de Sermones is a reminder of what she calls the brutally violent mandatory conversion to Catholicism. The Spanish colonization involved forced labor, and the Mayas who refused to give up their original religion were often jailed and tortured for heresy. Maya artifacts were deliberately destroyed, and most of their sacred texts were burned. Pérez-Báez says the book was likely produced by native speakers of K’iche’ whose original, indigenous names had already been replaced with Spanish names, who were being converted against their will.

“To me, being an advocate for linguistic diversity in this respect of human rights, it’s very difficult to hold a document that was an important part of the conversion to Christianity and all of the abuses. This book was representative of an era during which colonialism and the associated conversion to Christianity oppressed the indigenous population in often violent ways,” Pérez-Báez explains.

She is also disturbed by the thought that native speakers of K’iche’ were hired, or used, in the production of a book that was being used as an instrument to force the conversion of the remainder of the K’iche’ population.

“This is evidence of that conversion process that was very damaging to the languages, the cultures, the local knowledge, but especially the physical and emotional well-being of the people,” Pérez-Báez says.

Both she and Romero think the digitization of the Libro de Sermones is vitally important for scholars, even though the ancient text had to be laid nearly flat page by page to get a good digital image. Pérez-Báez says the book has gone through conservation, and is in pretty good shape for the Wonder exhibition. Allowing access to the document to scholars around the world is critical, Romero says. It also makes for better preservation.

“We’ve gotten to a different age in the study of colonial manuscripts of indigenous languages. … For us, having access to these manuscripts online is crucial because we need to have concordance between different text,” says Romero. He explains that sometimes a particular text doesn’t have the full story. That means scholars then have to consult different documents being reviewed by other colleagues that may include the missing fragments.

“Many libraries are actually digitizing their manuscripts and making them available online for scholars… .  It allows us to work across political lines and borders… .  So now we can use digital copies of manuscripts to be able to work together on the same text and that makes for a much more rich and interesting dialogue.”

[news-mashable-yahoopartner-blog]

Why does the Duolingo owl scare me more than my high school Spanish teacher ever did?

The Duolingo owl is ruining my life. So why do I feel so pressured to learn from it?

Like many other disappointments to the public education system, I spent seven years studying Spanish and barely retained any of it. The little remnants that still float around my memory are disjointed and just out of reach — I remember the words and their purpose, but can't seem to string them into a coherent conversation.

The pieces are all there. They're just scrambled. 

I started Spanish lessons on Duolingo months ago, but my enthusiasm wore off. When I stopped ascending two levels a night, the notifications began.

SEE ALSO: The Duolingo owl is out for vengeance in these threatening memes

Unlike my high school Spanish teacher, whose reach only extended to 50 minutes of class time a day, Duolingo is always with me. It lurks in the shadows of my phone, waiting for me to practice, and striking when it's most personally inconvenient. Whether I'm navigating rush hour traffic or sitting through an excruciating first date, Duolingo's push notifications remind me to spend five minutes on my daily lesson precisely when I don't have five minutes. 

It's an internet-wide experience: Duolingo's passive-aggressive notifications became a meme, and the company even leaned into it by bringing the threatening owl to life in this year's April Fools' Day prank. 

Granted, Duolingo users can turn these notifications off, and if you ignore them for long enough, the app will send you the ultimate passive aggressive alert: "These reminders don't seem to be working. We'll stop sending them for now." But allowing that to happen is even worse — you're just admitting defeat and accepting your failure to progress. 

The moment you've all been d̶r̶e̶a̶d̶i̶n̶g̶ waiting for... Introducing Duolingo Push! We're taking notifications out of your phone and into the real world. Yup: Duo the Owl will literally show up to remind you to practice so you never miss a lesson. 👉 https://t.co/UB8ld0pyiY pic.twitter.com/kHEQv2Winc

— Duolingo (@duolingo) April 1, 2019

Despite my annoyance with the overwhelming notifications, I still feel pressured keep going with Duolingo. I used to dread vocabulary quizzes and writing assignments, but somehow my high school Spanish teacher never instilled the same anxiety and guilt that skipping a Duolingo practice session does.

oh god oh fuck pic.twitter.com/JmrilYLl3n

— John (@monadoboii) March 31, 2019

To get to the bottom of this, I reached out to Rosanny Genao, who was my Spanish teacher for two years of high school, to figure out why an anthropomorphic green owl scares me more than she ever did. 

"You're not really encouraging people by sending messages that are going to generate more anxiety," Genao explained in a phone call. "I feel like if you're getting notifications all the time, it's almost like you're getting harassed."

The actual notifications aren't even that threatening — it's the personal disappointment that follows.  

There are no stakes when it comes to learning with an app. There's no risk of failing a midterm, or lowering your GPA, or losing credits and repeating a required class. You won't miss out on walking at graduation if you skip a few nights of Duolingo practice. 

At the same time, you're the only person holding yourself back if you don't keep going. Nobody will hold you accountable for not memorizing past tense conjugations except yourself; if you decide to stop educating yourself, that's on you. 

"Duolingo consistently makes me feel like a failure," my friend Rebecca texted when I joked about the owl's menacing reminders. "I feel like you could track my depression by looking at my Duolingo history."

It's a commonly held sentiment.

"Every time Duolingo sends the 'we'll stop sending you these reminders because they don't seem to be working' notification my heart breaks," @bicesrceis tweeted. "Stop reminding me how much of a failure I am."

"Not only am I a disappointment to my parents but now I’m also a disappointment to the Duolingo owl," @jaz_ham said a good month before the murderous owl went viral. 

The duolingo owl when you leave it alone for like 5 minutes pic.twitter.com/q5hQKVgZ7r

— Violet⚧☭⚢⛤🛡 (@OnePrplGrl) March 29, 2019

According to Genao, we're too used to finding immediate answers. In the age of Amazon Prime and Google Translate, who wants to spend time on absorbing and understanding a new language when you can learn it all in an instant?  

"It's the technology era," Genao said, referring to the neurotic people like me who finish ten levels a week before crashing and burning, doomed to never achieve bilingual glory. "We want everything, all the information as quickly and effective[ly] as possible. And we want to be done."

The immense pressure to learn comes from the immediate validation of completing a level. Practice more, and you're awarded more lingots. Acquire enough lingots and you can buy power-ups that'll freeze your streak for a day, outfits for the owl to wear, and bonus lessons that'll teach you idioms and flirtatious phrases. 

Aside from the bonus lessons, none of these purchases have real-world value, and unless you're planning a Love Actually-type romance with a Portuguese woman in rural France, learning to flirt may not hold much weight either. The knowledge that you achieved something is still there, though. 

If it's any solace, following Duolingo's orders won't actually make you bilingual. 

You can't truly acquire a second language by pairing matching phrases. There are two branches of bilingualism: simultaneous bilingualism, which means the speaker was spoken to in both languages from birth, and sequential or successive bilingualism, which means the speaker learned a second language later in childhood or adulthood. 

the new duolingo ad is weird pic.twitter.com/VDij0YVUaF

— miranda (@shazamstark) March 27, 2019

A paper from MIT and the University of Ottawa notes that when it comes to multilingualism, "most of this language learning occurs in untutored, naturalistic settings and throughout the lifespan of an individual." 

Even though language learning apps may have flashcards, visuals, and speaking components, they don't compare to immersing yourself in another culture. You don't just hardwire your brain to start thinking in another language. 

"It takes about five years if you really want to be bilingual," Genao explained. "It depends on the person but unless you are immersed in the language by going to that country where it's spoken, it takes at least three years to become somewhat proficient in it."

Which only adds to the fact that there are literally no stakes in ignoring Duolingo's pushy practice alerts. Still, knowing that your own lack of motivation keeping you from moving forward is enough of a guilt trip. A human teacher, Genao says, will keep you accountable for learning. If you're unmotivated, you have someone to push you to continue. 

"Whatever is that benchmark for the expectations you have, you set those goals on your own on an app," she said. "Where a teacher might demand a lot more from you."

Not learning is a failure to yourself, and depending on the type of person you are, is worse than any teacher's disappointing lecture. You may have lofty goals, but confronting your own ambition is terrifying in itself. For me, realizing that I'd never be conversational just from an app was absolutely freeing. 

the fact that the duolingo HQ owns a duo fursuit somewhere in their office is what scares me the most pic.twitter.com/6SVQgFoK4U

— reya | i'm babie (@catradoreya) April 1, 2019

That's not to say that you should give up on learning altogether. Learning Dutch phrases got me through a semester abroad, and getting into Korean has made grocery shopping for traditional family recipes significantly easier. But at the end of the day, Genao says nothing will accelerate language learning like daily conversations with a native speaker. 

I'm less self-deprecating when it comes to ignoring Duolingo's push notifications now, but it doesn't mean I'm deleting the app altogether. Duolingo, thankfully, will not come to my house in the dead of night to torture me into memorizing vocabulary, but I keep the app around as a self-flagellating reminder to try it again one day. 

There will always be a slight pang of guilt for not paying more attention in Señora Genao's class every time I clear my notifications. 

WATCH: These warming 'space pants' use technology to help people with chronic pain — Future Blink

[airlinepolyglot-blog]

another infrequent update

NOTE: a few links and whatnot are missing from this post, several YouTubes, etc. I will add them very shortly, and if I do not, then please remind me!

Hello everyone, I know it’s been awhile once again. It’s not that I haven’t been doing language things (quite the contrary), but rather that I don’t have time to tell you about them. A quick rundown of what I’ll be talking about here:

Travels and how language related:

-my trip to Toronto

-my trip to Hong Kong

-a brief mention of my trip to Cancun

What I have learned, language wise, since my last update:

-Norwegian

-German

-Welsh

-Hungarian

-Russian

-Turkish

I went to Toronto with my girlfriend Marisa since my last update. Toronto is of course an English majority city so there isn’t a ton to write about that, but it’s worth noting just how bilingual Canada is in many ways. Most people in Toronto can’t speak French, or rarely speak it, but it’s as prevalent as Spanish is in the US. Everything is cosigned in both languages, and of course the government enforces Canada’s bilingualism, which was extremely interesting. I’ll be interested to visit a really bilingual city in Canada, like Ottawa or Montreal, where everyone can speak both languages.

Hong Kong had been one of my top cities to visit after I got the airline job (and before that, too). There was obviously absolutely no way it was going to disappoint, and luckily it didn’t in the slightest. Definitely the best place I have been to to date (lovely English right there!), on so many levels. It’s extremely welcoming and inviting to an outsider, insanely easy to get around, very safe, etc. But to the world tourist, the level of English spoken in Hong Kong is extremely impressive. Literally everyone in Hong Kong spoke English that I spoke with, to a very good degree. Curiously, the Filipino domestic helpers spoke some of the poorest english (they stuck to Tagalog), and more obviously, the mainland tourists spoke very little (if any) English. I used Mandarin a few times, but interestingly I used German quite a bit (there’s apparently quite a bit of German expatriation in Hong Kong). I was caught off guard with the German, considering I was fairly out of practice (but usually made out just fine!), but I came armed with the Mandarin. Using HelloChinese and a few audio resources (Living Language) I had a conversational amount down, though I never used it to that degree (it would just be pointing someone in the right direction or making small talk), after really seeing Mainland Chinese in action in Hong Kong, I felt very motivated to really work on my Mandarin. Sadly, I haven’t much since my trip ended, but I’m sure I’ll pick it back up at some point - I love Mandarin and always preach how simple it is to everyone and tell people it’s far easier than people think. Because it is...once you accept that the characters are an “over time” thing. And as expected, the little Cantonese I spoke (“ni ho”, “mh’goi”, “ching”, etc) was received very well, but considering how widely English was spoken, it was just my sign of gratitude to the natives.

I did visit Cancun, Mexico with Marisa as well, because it was affordable, accessible, and warm. While it wasn’t great (we had a good time together though), I’ll of course cover the language situation there. Largely of course English to cater to tourists, a few people did indeed lead with Spanish, which was surprising. I had an Uber driver who only spoke Spanish and so he and I pieced through a conversation together, and he was helping me learn. But still, the Spanish language and I don’t really click sadly. A shame, as I want to visit Madrid, Colombia (any city), Santiago de Chile, and of course return to Buenos Aires. But luckily Marisa knows and likes Spanish, so she can come with me and help out with that until I’m back on track.

Okay, now an update on my language study stuff. I could post Duolingo stats but eh I don’t think those give as accurate an estimation as me describing my progress. So, I’ve been focusing on Norwegian a lot recently, which is without question my favorite language. I’ve been really focused on finishing the tree, and am at Level 17 on Duolingo. Admittedly, Duolingo is the only resource I’m using for Norwegian right now. No books, no YouTube, no audio, just Duolingo. So the terrible robot voice that Duo uses is my only way of hearing the language at the moment, but I’m doing that on purpose. Going to finish the tree and really have this language down, and then see how quickly I really pick up on it when I hear it spoken by actual people. It’s such a simple and logical language on almost every level that it’s amazing. The grammar is just so much more simple than any other language. The verb conjugations (or relative lack thereof), definite articles (which are suffixes), word order, negation (just “ikke”) just all make so much sense. The amazing Paul (Langfocus) did an awesome video about Norwegian and its relation to Swedish and Danish, with a lesser extent Faroese and Icelandic (both of which are far more complicated grammatically than the other three). In an ideal world, the Vikings and their successors would’ve pushed for Norwegian (or Swedish, but I like Norwegian and the culture of Norway just a bit more) to be the universal language of the world instead of English. Norwegian is an easier and better language than English, and it’s far more logical in ways (grammatically and pronounced) than English ever could be. It (as well as Swedish and Danish) also lacks the case system that comes along with German, which makes it much easier to learn than the main language of its family. Through Norwegian, you can almost fully understand Swedish. I haven’t done Swedish on Duolingo at all, but I can read Swedish text incredibly well, point out and translate words in IKEA, and breeze through Memrise and Tinycards decks, thanks to my understanding of Norwegian. I can understand written Danish to the same degree, but it’s a wildly different language when spoken. I haven’t studied Danish much, but I’m sure once you’re used to how they pronounce things (like Spanish/Portuguese differences), you’ll be in great shape. I can’t wait to hopefully visit Oslo this summer, as I still have not gotten to speak Norwegian in real life at all yet, but am confident I can do so….well, confidently. We will find out soon.

I am returning to Germany in a few weeks, and in preparation I’m of course going through my German resources again. Reguilding Duolingo, going through some advanced levels on Memrise, playing around on Babadum, and things like that. German is annoyingly difficult/tricky in so many ways (and after learning one of the North Germanic languages, it will frustrate you more once you’ve learned just how simple it all can be!!!), but I’m convinced the language runs through my blood and is almost second nature to me at this point, which I’m extremely grateful for. I can jump into conversations often, understand it when I hear it (even Swiss German!), and generally carry myself along. I just wish it wasn’t so difficult for new learners who aren’t picking it up in a classroom setting - it really is a difficult language to teach yourself, especially if you’ve never dealt with a three gender language AND one that has a case system, no less. Plus, “sie” can mean she/formal you/they, which I’m sure can certainly trip anyone up. That’s just a bit impractical, but luckily I have that advantage I guess.

I dabbled briefly in Welsh on Duolingo. A very fun and surprisingly simple language, I put it on hold temporarily due to my desire to focus on other languages. Nonetheless, I found it super interesting, though of course often difficult to pronounce. The “dd” sound in Welsh is maybe the most difficult thing I’ve ever attempted to pronounce, and I’m convinced only natives will ever master it. I want to see this language kept alive, so certainly give it a shot - the Duolingo course is wonderful and very well designed, and this YouTube video (linked within the course) will teach you how to pronounce the language very well.

My last three languages I’ll sort of talk about together. They are Russian, Hungarian, and Turkish. Three languages from different families (but I guess a similar part of the world), but damn are they a lot of fun to me. I’m actually glad I waited a week to write this post, as I attempted to look at Turkish again last night for the first time in ages and it suddenly made tons of sense to me - being an agglutinative language and all, just like Hungarian and to a lesser extent Russian. All three of these languages are pretty “out there” for an English speaker, and I’ll agree, some of the trickiest for an English speaker to learn, as they have a lot of rules. But honestly that’s a lot of the fun, once you get the rules down and can form sentences and work with the case system (all three languages feature a case system), you feel really accomplished speaking these beautiful languages. Russian always tends to amaze me, the amount of loanwords and similar vocabulary in Russian will really surprise you. Once you master the Cyrillic alphabet, I bet you could look at a Russian text and point out so many words that are similar to the Romance or Germanic languages. This makes for fun learning once you figure out the Slavic twist to put on each word. The lack of articles in Russian and verb “to be” is of course a massive advantage - once you dig into the language you realize just how much of a blessing this is. I’m really enjoying Russian, and while I still make plenty of grammar mistakes and still struggle to pronounce some things, I can’t wait to really get this language down and be able to speak it with confidence. While I won’t be able to speak Hungarian with sure confidence probably for a long time, it’s an extremely fun language to me. It has something like 15 cases - definitely an extreme amount, and not a language for the faint of heart, but if you’re really into this kind of thing you may want to look into it. The alphabet and pronunciation are quite simple once you get them down, and word order is very free thanks to the case system (similar to Russian!). Plus, the Hungarian people are great and amazed anyone attempts to learn their very hard language. I’m going to see for myself when I go to Budapest next month and attempt to drag some Hungarian out (they’re also attempting to learn English widespread, as tourism in Hungary amongst Europeans is climbing), and we’ll see if the rumors are true about how happy Hungarians are that we even let out a “szia” (hello/goodbye) or a “köszönöm” (thank you) in conversation. If you’re scared off by Russian’s foreign alphabet and Hungarian’s crazy amount of cases, then maybe Turkish is a good place to start if you’re interested in an agglutinative language that differs wildly from English and the languages similar (romance/germanic). Turkish follows a Subject+Object+Verb order which is kind of fun because you know the action is always at the end, and the vocabulary is very cool (and apparently features tons of Persian and Arabic loanwords). While I haven’t dove too deep into Turkish, by the time my next update rolls around, I believe I will have more to tell you, as I plan to get right back to Turkish on Duolingo once I’ve posted this. While neither Turkey (political situation) nor Russia (complicated visa issues) would be suitable to visit now, Azerbaijan would be a good place I think, as a large part of the population still speaks Russian, a lot speak English (thanks to all the expats), and their native language, Azerbaijani (or Azeri Turkish) is apparently very close to Turkish, so someone who knows Turkish well can quickly pick up on Azerbaijani. I wonder if the differences are as close as Norwegian to Swedish or more like Spanish to Italian. Maybe I’ll know by the time I write here next.

I also am attempting to learn the Greek alphabet because why not (the lowercase letters are throwing me off big time - why must they be different from the uppercase?!) and of course still looking at Italian, French, etc from time to time. I don’t have any decent observations on these developments.

Hopefully I’ll write to you all again soon. Follow me on Instagram or something if you’d like more frequent updates about my life.

[janetchavezcom]

How To Work As An Online Language Translator

Alexandra is an Online Translator

Travel Jobs

Did you know that if you’re fluent in another language, you can earn money as an online translator working from your computer while also traveling the world?

Today, my friend Alexandra shares her experience working as a nomadic translator, along with tips for how to find online translation jobs while traveling. Here’s Alexandra:

For more travel friendly job ideas, check out my ultimate guide to Finding Work While Traveling.

Online translation is one of the best careers for language lovers who wish to see the world without compromising their professional goals.

Unlike teaching English as a foreign language, translating may give you more flexibility and financial freedom, akin to other popular digital nomad careers such as freelance writing or graphic design.

You may choose who to work with, where to work from, when to work, and even how much you earn.

However, if you want to make a living with online translation, it’s not as easy as just being bilingual. In fact, many unsuspecting prospects don’t realize it can take years to build up the knowledge and references to become successful (a.k.a. well-paid) in this field.

But don’t fret! I’m going to share how to get started with online translation, and some of the best lessons I’ve learned for success after a decade in this business.

Typical Day For A Freelance Translator

8 AM: Wake up for yoga session. A clear mind always translates better.

9 AM: Breakfast and coffee while checking email (focus on client emails only)

10 AM: Check my status Excel sheet including current projects, in descending order, by deadline

10:30 AM: Open up Linguee.com, my favorite context-translation online resource for cross-referencing, and start translating away

12:30 PM: Lunch break (swim and beachside meal preferably!)

1:30 PM: Check client-only emails again for potential project updates

1:45 PM: Continue working on translation project at hand

3:45 PM: 15 minute afternoon coffee break

4 PM: Follow-up on invoices, send any new ones

5 PM: Look for new opportunities on websites like ProZ.com

6 PM: Dinner and a sunset

7-9 PM: Explore the city

Some days it’s just the reverse: explore a new city in the morning while the weather is still cool, then start working by midday. Other days you just work half the day and take the other half off.

No pending projects and enough funds in the bank? What the heck, take it all off!

What if you land a gig with a full-time client? Then it’s typically an 8-9 hour day, just focusing on translating, proofreading, and publishing content for said client, clocking out around sunset.

Every other Friday I usually take the day off to either work on passion projects or just relax.

Translation or Interpretation?

Online Translation vs. Interpretation

Many people confuse online translation with interpretation. Translators convey the meaning from one language to another in writing, while interpreters convey the meaning orally.

Each career track requires different skills sets, too.

After working in both tracks, I can confidently tell you that translation is the most digital-nomad-friendly of the two.

Many interpretation opportunities require your physical presence and/or more sophisticated equipment for over-the-phone interpretation or video conferencing.

This makes online translation the preferred career track for those who wish to have the freedom to travel the world and work from anywhere.

Selection Of A Language Pair

Translators work in language pairs, so you must pick the two languages you are most proficient in to get started.

You are expected to specify your language pair(s) on your resume or professional profile, accordingly.

Most importantly, the language pair you choose to work with will also play an important role in determining your earning potential for any translator job.

In the rare occasion that you’re allowed to translate into a target language that isn’t your native one, a bachelor’s degree and/or significant professional experience in-country is typically required.

Highest Paying Language Pairs

English to Arabic

English to Chinese

English to Japanese

English to Danish

A 2008 report from a survey conducted by the American Translators Association (ATA) explained:

“At an average of $0.19 per word, the language combinations commanding the highest rate per word were English into Arabic and English into Danish. At an average of $0.12 per word, the language combinations commanding the lowest rate were English into Italian and English into Portuguese. The highest average hourly rates by language combination were English into Chinese ($74.92) and Chinese into English ($65.79).”

The following article by TranslationRules.com may also help you better understand competition, demand, and earnings for translators as they relate to selection of language pairs.

My primary language pair is English into Spanish, as I’m a native Spanish speaker (that being my target language here); while my secondary language pair is Spanish into English, as English is my second language and I can read and write it at a professional level.

Even though this is the language pair with the highest demand and competition for translation jobs, I still managed to earn six-figures working in the United States.

Working while Traveling

Become An Outstanding Writer

Being bilingual is not enough to become a competent freelance translator. In fact, you also must be an excellent writer in both languages and highly skilled in your industry (niche) of choice.

Moreover, there are many cultural nuances in language that you won’t learn unless you experience it in a country that speaks it.

Truth be told, I was not ready to be a professional translator until I finished four years of intense writing courses in an American college and lived in the United States.

Ways to properly prepare for an online translation career and improve your language skills include taking advantage of study abroad programs, enrolling for classes in a foreign university or hire a private language tutor from your country of interest.

Picking A Niche For Translation

Picking a niche or specialty in the language industry is as important as deciding whether you want to be a translator or an interpreter, as this will dictate the other set of skills and abilities you will need to develop before your career (and pay) takes off.

Individual translation project length is typically linked to its niche, so take that into consideration when comparing the industries you’re interested in.

Your obvious passions may not necessarily be the industries you want to be translating in, so I suggest you practice translating your top topics at home in order to zero in on your ideal translation niche.

Interested in translating websites about general topics such as tourism, lifestyle or celebrity news?

Becoming an expert on website localization and frequently reading about those topics in both languages of your pair should be part of your career development in order to have a competitive edge.

A bachelor’s degree in creative writing and/or translation in either language may be a good idea in order to land internships during your studies and/or a good entry-level translation position.

Interested in better-paying technical translation fields such as information technology, engineering, medical or legal?

I highly recommend a bachelor’s degree in your technical field of choice, with a related entry-level translation job post-graduation for a minimum of two years.

A master’s degree in translation and/or the selected technical field is also recommended in lieu of an entry-level translation job.

Either track — getting a higher-education degree in translation or two years of translation experience — will typically give you the minimum skills and preparation necessary to sit for and successfully pass a translation certification examination such as the ATA’s, if that’s what you’re interested in.

Freelance Language Translation

Should You Get Certified?

Getting certified as a freelance translator is as much a personal as it is a professional choice. No translation degree or certification is technically required — but it can help.

One of the nice reality checks, when I started translating, is that no translation degree or certification is required for many translator jobs unless you’re interested in a specialized field such as medical or legal.

The flip side is that, if you are certified, you are more likely to land a better translation job — or any translation project for that matter.

More likely than not, whether you get certified will depend on the niche or industry you select to work in.

Interestingly, top certification bodies such as the ATA only recommend certification to experienced, mid-career translators anyway, so I suggest you experiment translating in different industries to get a feel of what you’re really passionate about.

An ATA certification, along with other local and foreign equivalents, typically gives you an edge when applying for full-time technical translator positions or technical freelance projects online.

While this also applies to prospective non-technical online translators, references/a portfolio are more valued in the latter than the former (from my personal experience).

Still, I advise you to look up the eligibility criteria for freelance translator positions in your industries of choice for more insight related to your top niches and/or their certification requirements.

Be Willing To Work For Less

Well, at least at first.

I officially started my translating career by working for a startup while I was still in college. This first translation job is actually what helped me zero in on the niche I was interested in.

Since I didn’t have a translation degree, didn’t have a translation certification, and graduated amid the Great Recession, I was grateful and simply saw the low starting salary as a paid internship (even though it wasn’t).

All they asked me to do to prove I could do the job? Translate a sample during the interview – that was it!

So my starting salary was way less than the average college graduate is “supposed” to get. But you know what? I gained so much experience on this job, got promoted to project manager within 18 months, and that bona fide translation reference helped me get my foot in the door of the world of freelance translation.

This position also led me to other projects that I was passionate about (tourism/marketing), as it built up my confidence and resume to successfully network with destination marketing professionals on travel blogging conferences.

The Small Projects Matter

Still working on your writing skills or simply trying to get some translation experience?

Small jobs or projects such as translating restaurant menus in a foreign country can not only help you improve with real-world practice but can surprisingly serve as excellent networking opportunities.

Word-of-mouth goes a long way, particularly abroad! You can also pursue these kinds of opportunities in international neighborhoods within your city, whose businesses may have a need for quality translations within your language pair.

Make your professional profile stand out. Even if you have little to no translation experience, setting up an online professional profile is one of the most important steps of your career.

If you have not built a translation portfolio yet, I recommend you post samples of translations you have done in your spare time of topics or industries you are interested in working in.

This will allow prospective employers and recruiters to see the quality of your translations early on.

I landed several interviews by doing this!

REMEMBER: Both volunteer and paid translation projects and positions count, so fill out your online profile as thoroughly as possible, updating it whenever you start or finish a relevant project or position.

Don’t forget to include any awards, company goals attained, etc.

The ProZ Job Board

Finding Online Translation Jobs

While ProZ and Translators Cafe are some of the best websites for translators looking for paid projects or positions, it may be hard to compete with the more experienced translators who typically bid on those job boards.

Thus, if you are a beginner, I recommend you look into People Per Hour, Upwork or Fiverr for shorter, typically-lower-competition translation projects to build up your portfolio.

Most importantly, be creative! A unique way I landed some of my first freelance translation jobs involved reaching out to the marketing/public affairs contacts of multilingual online travel websites or magazines to see if they needed freelance translators for individual projects or ask if were hiring entry-level translators.

Additionally, I went to travel blogging and tourism conferences, networking with destination marketing professionals to land this type of translation projects.

Applying For Translation Projects

Making your online professional translator profile stand out is just as important as crafting a successful pitch. The best pitches are those that are brief, concise, and personalized to each translation project you are bidding for.

That being said, there are certain elements that should be included in all of your pitches: your current per-word rates in the currency of the offer, a brief byline highlighting your years of experience and how that experience or areas of specialization match with the translation project being offered.

Below is a sample pitch I successfully used early in my translation career. I included/excluded information depending on the client or project at hand:

Dear _,

My current rates are USD $0.10 per word or USD $25/hr for proofreading, meaning I can complete your web project for a total of $___ – well within your budget. I am able to deliver the completed project before your desired deadline.

About me: I studied and lived in Latin America for 18 years; have been a volunteer translator for 8 years, and have more than 3 years of full-time experience as a professional marketing, localization, and translation manager. Additionally, I’m a freelance translator and bilingual travel writer (Spanish and English).

References and endorsements can be found in my LinkedIn profile, which I have included below:

[URL here]

You may reach me at ___@gmail.com

Looking forward to collaborating with you on this project!

Average Translation Project Length

There’s no real way of telling what your average project length will be, as it highly depends on your niche and which projects you apply for.

However, I can tell you from personal experience that website articles/blog posts average between 500-1200 words; press releases hover around 1000 words; and full website localizations can be in the hundreds of thousands of words, as you also have to translate backend items such as text on menus, photo captions, alt text, and other SEO metadata.

Interested in becoming a technical translator? Unless you are translating blog posts or website articles for a tech site, you will likely be translating guides or manuals containing hundreds of thousands of words.

If you are easily bored, this is not a field for you, as you could be working on the same guide/manual translation for weeks or even months.

Charge Per Word, Not Per Project

When looking for online translation jobs or projects you will find that the most common way translators charge for work is per word, not per project.

Per-word rates vary widely depending on industry, technicality of a particular project, and popularity/demand-supply of the language pair.

For example, even experienced English-Spanish translators rarely earn over US $0.20 per word unless they work in very technical fields or hold a full-time position that includes website localization and bilingual marketing.

By contrast, English-Arabic translators can easily expect to earn up to US $0.40 per word for freelance projects or $200,000 for salaried positions when working with an American or European client, even in fields not considered as technical.

A simple Google search (i.e. “per word rate French into English translators”) will help you calculate an average that is best for you, your language pair, and location of your desired clientele.

From personal experience, I have found that a good starting point for beginner online translation jobs in my language pair (English into Spanish and vice versa) is US $0.10 per word.

Per-word rates is a highly debatable topic and some translators still feel $0.10 per word is a lowball offer.

How To Get Paid As A Translator

Most translator or freelance marketplaces make clients pay you via PayPal, so expect to lose about 4% of the total of each translation project — in addition to any other fees each particular marketplace may or may not charge.

Some freelance marketplaces offer the option to get paid by ACH or check from the client, but be careful: these payment methods usually don’t include a protection by the marketplace, which exposes you to fraud and scams.

Best way to get around this? Bid for translation projects with established companies, which you can identify by visiting the profile of each translation offer.

This way, you can reach out to the translation company separately through their official website, in the hopes that they will broker future deals directly through you and without the middleman marketplace.

You can then request they send you money via other methods with lower to no fees. I did this to establish certain business relationships, plus avoided all fees by getting paid by check (which was sent within the U.S.), then have it mobile-deposited into an account by a trusted family member.

If you plan to become a freelance translator to travel the world however, it is unlikely you will be able to avoid all fees if you wish to get paid safely (and electronically).

Telecommuting Translator Positions

Those who are not as comfortable working on an independent contractor basis (a.k.a. freelancing) and beginners should also look into telecommuting translator positions.

Benefits include a predetermined salary, payment via ACH or direct deposit (bye-bye fees), a set amount of hours worked per week, paid leave, and even health insurance coverage and 401(k) for some U.S.-based positions.

I highly recommend this type of telecommuting opportunities to translators with little to no experience, as they can be a great career launching pad.

Some companies offer apprenticeships, certifications, and/or other valuable perks in addition to the aforementioned benefits.

This is a great way to build up your resume before going solo, as you are unlikely to be awarded high-paying freelance translation projects without solid references.

Remember: you must build a strong foundation as competition can be fierce, especially for the most common language pairs such as Spanish into English, French into English, Italian into English, and vice versa.

Initiative & Networking Are Key

Whichever track you choose, I can assure you that individual preparation and networking will be the main key to success as a translator.

I have two bachelor’s degrees in criminology and political science; have 8 years of professional translation experience, but only got certified in interpretation by a former company I work for; I never got certified in translation.

Yet, I still earn six figures as a chief Spanish translator in the public affairs/marketing/law enforcement/tourism industries in the U.S. I currently work full-time for one client—occasionally doing other side gigs/passion projects.

I got where I got by experimenting with translation gigs in different industries early in my career, in addition to individually honing my writing skills in both languages and networking online, or with industry conferences to obtain gigs/projects that eventually became part of my translation portfolio.

As you can see, your ability to hustle independently will be the major predictor of how successful (and well-paid) you will be as a freelance nomadic translator! ★

Alexandra Laborde de Bess is the author of LatinAbroad.com, where she shares her struggles living with a chronic pain disability, travel tales, and advice after exploring over 30 countries across 5 continents. Follow her on Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest!

Freelance Translator Resources

r/TranslationStudies – A Reddit community featuring articles, tips, and resources for people who work as translators.

ProZ.com – The most popular job board for finding online translation work.

Translators Cafe – The second most popular job board for translation projects.

How To Succeed As A Freelance Translator – Great book to help you get started as a professional translator.

For more ways to make money while traveling, check out my Ultimate Travel-Friendly Job Guide.

Pin This!

READ MORE TRAVEL TIPS

My Travel Packing Gear Guide How To Work On A Sailing Yacht Do You Know These Travel Scams? How I Make Money While Traveling

Have any questions for Alexandra about working as a freelance translator or landing your first job? Drop her a message in the comments below!

This is a post from The Expert Vagabond adventure blog.

from Tips For Traveling https://expertvagabond.com/online-translation-jobs/

[eurolinguiste]

Learning a language can be challenging. It takes time and effort. And sometimes, you can’t help but wonder what you were thinking when you started. But what if language learning could be fun? What if you could watch your favorite tv series while you learn?

This is exactly what I’ve done with Netflix. I’ve found a way to use it to my advantage, and I want to share it with you.

Why Learn a Language with Netflix?

Today, Netflix is one of the most convenient ways to indulge in our latest tv obsessions. With over 125 million subscribers it is also one of the most popular ways to stream the latest and greatest.

Not only can you choose from a huge range of series, movies, and documentaries, but you can also watch whatever you want from wherever you want. Even offline.

With series from all over the world and movies in many different languages it is very easy to find something in the language you want and with subtitles in different languages.

It is also as easy to switch audio and subtitle languages as you’re watching. You have the freedom to try out any number of subtitle and audio combinations in real time.

We Use Netflix Either Way, So Why Not Use It Wisely?

On average, people spend one and a half hours a day watching something Netflix. So why not use that time wisely by learning a language while you do it? With Netflix, you have the ability to do it your way – with a series you’re already watching or by indulging in something new in its original language.

By watching a series from a country where the language you want to learn is spoken, you will not only learn the language but also get insight into the people who speak it and the culture tied to it.

Are you sold on the benefits?

Great. You may now find yourself wondering just how to use Netflix to learn a language. Listening is a very important part of that strategy.

You may know a ton of words in your language by sight, but if someone talks to you and you don’t understand him what good does that knowledge do you?

This is why Netflix is a great way to get exposure to the language and to boost your listening. Plus, you can use it to boost your vocabulary.

And the best part is, by watching tv series, that vocabulary includes useful words you might never learn in a book or app.

Who is Learning with Netflix for?

Netflix can be used at any stage in your learning. In the beginning, you can use it to start getting used to the way language sounds, its rhythm and how its really used by native speakers.

Over time, you’ll have the chance to improve your listening comprehension and really start to understand people when they speak. You will also get used to processing the language at a normal speed as spoken by native speakers.

As you progress, you can use Netflix to pick up new vocabulary. This is great not just because you’ll learn the everyday words you need, but also the colloquial way of speaking from native people. You will learn common expressions you might not otherwise get exposure to without visiting the country.

Once you can speak the language, watching tv series is a great way to keep up your exposure to the language.

The Netflix “School” of Language Learning

Let’s jump into how I have used Netflix to learn.

I started learning Portuguese and used Netflix a lot to help me. Now I am able to understand a lot, and because this method is so effective, I’ve also started to use it with Korean.

The first step is to find a series that you want to watch. I recommend finding a series that covers an area or genre you’re interested in. And it should originally be in the language you want to learn (not an overdub).

By doing this, you avoid poor translations and picking up any inaccuracies. It is also a great way to learn more about the language’s culture.

Because you are going to use it as a learning tool, you won’t want to watch a lot of episodes at once. No binge-watching here! You should also have pen and paper ready.

Using this method, you will watch short segments of the series. Usually in the range of 5 minutes. I recommend no longer than 10 minutes at a time, especially at the beginning.

Round One

Once you’ve selected the series you want to watch, it is time to start watching. The first time you tune in, you are going to watch the series in its original version (the language you want to learn) with subtitles also in the original language.

In Round One, the rules are simple. Just watch and do your best to understand what is happening through context. This round is so that you can start getting used to the sounds of the language.

As you improve in the language, you can do this first time without subtitles.

Round Two

Round Two is all about understanding what is being said in full. This means that this time around, you’ll change the subtitles into your native language.

This time you will understand everything, maybe not in the language that you want to learn, but you will know what the series is about and what is happening because you are reading it in your native language.

You might have understood some things the first time you watched it, or some you thought you did but were not sure. Now you will realize how much you actually understood the first time.

Round Three

In Round Three, you will watch it again in the language you want to learn with subtitles in the same language. This time have pen and paper ready. Plan to hit pause a few times as you’re watching.

When you begin this time, one of the first things you’ll notice is that you understand more than the first time you listened. Thanks to reading the second pass in your native language, you can now understand a few words.

On this third viewing, you are going to hit pause every time you have trouble understanding. Rewind and write down the phrase you had trouble with. Because you’re using the subtitles, you will have the subtitles to reference as you’re writing.

Even though it may feel as though you’re writing down a lot, take pride in the fact that you’re writing down far less than you would have if you had done this step in Round One.

Translating the Words

Now that you have written all the words down, it’s time to translate them. Look for the translation on the internet or on a dictionary (not by watching again with the subtitles in your native language).

This way the words will stick because you’re giving them a new context.

Do this for about 5 to 10 minutes. The shorter amount of time you do this, the more you can focus, and the easier this task will be.

As you understand more, you will need to write fewer words, so if you’re up for the challenge, you can always increase the time.

Once this step is done, you can watch the entire episode once more (without having to pause) so that you enjoy the entire storyline uninterrupted and with greater understanding.

At Which Stage Can I Start This Method?

When you start this method depends a bit on which language you are learning. The more similar it is to your native language (or a language you already know), the more manageable this method is.

If it is similar to a language you already know (and with the same writing system), you can start right away. That’s what I did with Portuguese. Since I knew Spanish, I was able to start using this method on Day 1.

If I were learning a more distant language like Polish, on the other hand, I would wait to start after I knew a few basic words or phrases. I would also likely start with a kids show or a “soft” comedy with more accessible vocabulary.

For languages with a different writing system, I’d do the following…

Learning Korean with the Netflix School of Language Learning

Up to this point, I’ve discussed this method generally. That way, you can apply it to any language. I focused only on using it with languages which are similar to those I already know, but now, I’m going to dive deep and share how I’m applying this same method with Korean.

Why is it different with Korean?

With Korean, the most notable difference is the new writing system. When learning a language with a different writing system, it means you have to deal with subtitles using that writing system. So you need to know how to read it.

Another thing that can make this very complicated, especially for people that have never had contact with a language this distant from their own, is that it will sound very different. There are fewer cognates and loanwords, so they’ll be less vocabulary you’ll recognize by association. Very often, it will sound more like random sounds than words. It’s difficult to figure out when a word starts or finishes.

At least at the beginning…

How to Apply Learning With Netflix to Korean

You might be wondering whether or not it’s possible to use this method with Korean. My answer? A resounding yes!

My only tip is to wait just a little bit longer along your language learning journey to apply it.

Since the writing system is different, I first recommend taking some time getting acquainted with it. Before beginning, I recommend being comfortable the letters or characters (even if you don’t understand what you’re reading). If not, there is no way that you will be able to follow along with the subtitles.

The Korean alphabet is pretty easy to learn. And bonus – while getting familiar with the alphabet, you’ll pick up a lot of words and phrases.

When you start to apply the Netflix method, this is great because you’ll already understand some Korean.

Once you’ve become comfortable reading you can start applying the method, in the same way, I explained before.

Why Learning a Language with Netflix Works

Listening is a very important part of the language learning process. You need to be able to understand what other people say to you in order to be able to converse and use your language.

It can often be difficult to get exposure to language so that you’re ready to use it when the occasion arises.

That’s why watching a series or films is so effective. It’s something that you can do easily from the comfort of your couch.

You also get to hear how people speak, the expressions they use and the more colloquial way of speaking.

When I was learning English, I watched every movie and every tv series I could in the original version. In result, my listening comprehension skills allowed me to understand everything I heard when people talked to me.

Of course, to really converse, you’ll also need to practice speaking. But using this method to boost your listening skills is a great way to get started along the right path.

Final Thoughts

Learning with Netflix works. And it’s a fun way to learn — better than the usual listening material aimed at learners.

You can choose what you want to watch. And by choosing something that interests you, you’re more motivated to learn.

If you find movies and a series that you really like, you’ll be eager to understand without subtitles. You can more fully immerse yourself in the story that way. That’s certainly the case for me with Korean.

If you’re already watching stuff on Netflix, it’s simple to start using that time wisely. What better way to learn a new language than by enjoying your favorite tv series?

If you try it out let me know what you think. I’d love to hear if it helps you and if you have any suggestions for improving this method. Let me know what language you are learning in the comments below.

About the Author: I am Carla and speak 4 languages, and I am on the journey to learning my 5th. Together with Oliver, I run Exciting Adventure where we share our journey on becoming digital nomads, as well as travel and language learning tips. I believe that everybody should do what they love and that is why I started the blog.

The post Using Netflix to Learn a Language: Study Languages with TV appeared first on Eurolinguiste.